


23 



A 




<&^*?+tf 



\kXM\$ Of 60«0MM. 










UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE 



MIRROR OF INTEMPERANCE, 



HISTORY OF THE TEMPERANCE REFORM. 

TO WHICH 13 ADDED 

Z\)t Hffe ant) Dtatf) of Kina Sllcoljol, 
AND ORIGINAL AND SELECTED ANECDOTES. 

BY REV. MARCUS E. CROSS. 



O, that men should put an enemy in their mouths, to steal away 
their brains! that we should with joy. revel pleasure, and applause, 
transform ourselves into beasts! Shakspeare. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

PUBLISHED BY JOHN T. LANGE, 

NO. 24 SOUTH SECOND ST., ABOVE CHESNUT. 

1849. 



HV 5-2.95 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, 

BY MARCUS E. CROSS, 

in the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the 
Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



Stereotyped by 
S. DOUGLAS WYETH. 
No. 7 Peir St. rhiladelphh. 

Printed by 
T. K. & P. G. COM 



PREFACE. 



The author of this work has observed with deep regret an 
apparent decline of interest in the temperance enterprise for some 
time past. As there is a close connection between enlightened 
zeal in moral and religious causes, and the diffusion of principles, 
information, and facts, in connection with such causes, he was 
induced to undertake the preparation of this volume, with a view 
of awakening greater interest in this movement. No one can 
doubt the utility of diffusing correct intelligence in reference to 
the temperance question. All who have had experience in pro- 
moting this cause, will admit the force of the following testimony 
of that indefatigable and philanthropic laborer in the temperance 
enterprise, E. C. Delavan, Esq., in relation to the matter of circu- 
lating temperance reading. He says — "I have always considered 
that a dollar judiciously expended, in circulating good temperance 
documents among the people, produced one hundredfold the cost, 
in direct or indirect pecuniary advantage to the public. A tem- 
perance document, for a series of years, was placed in each 
family of a town ; and I was assured it occasioned the saving 
of ten thousand dollars a year, in the cost of ardent spirits alone, 
not to mention the many and great incidental advantages." 

From a conviction that a small history of the temperance 
movement was needed, and would subserve the interests of the 
cause — a work which should embody the more important facts 
in this cause in a connected shape, and which should bring before 
the mind the evils of intemperance, the causes of the same, the 

iii 



IV PREFACE. 

remedy, and the present demands of the cause — the author was 
induced to prepare this little volume. The Poem, which follows 
the History, on " The Life and Death of King Alcohol," which 
my friend the benevolent author consented to have published in 
this volume, is calculated to interest every reader. A few choice 
anecdotes have been furnished separately. Anecdote has been 
one of the efficient instruments in promoting the temperance 
reform : what could not be effected by powerful argument, has 
sometimes been achieved by illustration and striking facts. Some 
in this selection have been widely circulated ; but they may be 
read or repeated the hundredth time with pleasure and advan- 
tage. 

In the preparation of "The Mirror of Intemperance," the 
author, in order to increase the value of the work, has made use 
of the facts, arguments, and views of those writers who had 
preceded him, which were within his reach, and which seemed 
adapted to contribute interest to the work in hand. Should this 
l:ttle volume subserve the cause of temperance, encourage and 
strengthen its friends, and be made in the Lord's hands the in- 
strument of reclaiming inebriates, its name will then be written 
in heaven, and its unworthy author will not have laboured in 
vain. 

M. E. C. 



Rose Hill Manse, (Darby,) April, 1849. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
HISTORY OF INTEMPERANCE. 

PAGE 

Intemperance, the great sin of the civilized world 11 
Design of the Temperance Movement . .12 
State of things when the Temperance Reform com- 
menced . . . . . .13 

All loved Alcohol . . . . .14 

R. M. Hartley's Paper . . . .14 

CHAPTER II. 

CHARACTERISTICS OF ALCOHOL. 

How the word Alcohol derived . . .16 

When Alcohol first extracted . . .17 

Alcohol alike in all liquors . . . .17 

Alcohol not found in nature . . . .18 

The result of decay and destruction . . .20 

Alcohol drugged with various poisons . .21 

" injures every part of the human system . 22 

" injures the brain . . . .23 

" passes unchanged into different organs . 24 

Its effects on the human stomach . . .25 

St. Martin and Dr. Beaumonts's experiments . 25 

The transmission of organism . . .26 

Striking fact . . . . . .28 

Dr. Caldwell's testimony . . . .29 

CHAPTER III. 

ALCOHOL A POISON. 

Testimony of chemists, and medical authorities . 30 

Testimony of Sir Astley Cooper . . .30 



VI 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Testimony of Dr. Darwin, F. R. S., Dr. Gordon, and 
great numbers in Europe and America . . 31 

OTHER INTOXICATING BEVERAGES. 

Strong drink among the Israelites . . .32 

Arrack of India . . . . .32 

Opium . . . . . . .33 

Betel of Asia and Polynesia . . . .33 

Bangue of Eastern countries . . . .33 

Coca of South America . . . .34 

Pulque of Mexico . . . . .34 

Other stimulants . . . . .35 



CHAPTER IV. 




ALCOHOL AN ENEMY TO ALL THE BEST 


INTERESTS OF MAN. 




Alcohol an enemy to pecuniary interests 


. 36 


" an enemy to social interests . 


. 37 


" an enemy to man's physical power* 


1 . 38 


" invades moral interests 


. 40 


The murder of Mr. Southwell 


. 40 


Alcohol destroys the human intellect 


. 41 


Examples of ruined intellect . 


. 42 


Shakspeare, Byron, and others 


. 42 


Produces insanity 


. 43 


Alcohol an enemy to religion . 


. 44 


" (1) Prevents religious impressions 


. 44 


" (2) Hinders progress of religion 


- 45 


" (3) Produces declension in religion 


. 47 


History of fifteen young men . 


. 47 


Nadab and Abihu 


. 49 


CHAPTER V. 




CAUSES OF INTEMPERANCI 


1 


Our views of liberty . 


50 


The laws of our country 


. 50 


National habits . 


. 51 


The desire of excitement 


. 51 


Effort to drown present sorrow 


. 51 



CONTENTS. Vll 

PAGE 

Theatres . . . . . .52 

Gambling . . . . . .52 

Sabbath amusements . . . . .52 

Disappointment in business . . . .53 

Stimulating alcoholic mixtures . . .53 

Sensuality . . . . . .53 

Treating customers . . . • .54 

CHAPTER VI. 
REMEDY FOR INTEMPERANCE. 

Religious principle . . . . .56 

General improvement . . . . .58 

New interest must be awakened . . .58 

Correct legislation . . . . .59 

Excuses for the traffic . . . .61 

The temperate must resist temptation at public 

places . . . . . .64 

CHAPTER VII. 
OBJECTIONS TO TEMPERANCE. 
Abstinence not Temperance . . .66 
Teetotalism an extreme . . . .66 
A dram after meals . . . . .67 
I am temperate now . . . . .67 
Dangerous to abstain suddenly . . .68 
Important testimony . . . . .69 
Joseph John Gurney, Esq. . . . .70 
Dr. Miller, of Princeton . . . .70 
Looks mean-spirited to sign a pledge to be temper- 
ate . . . . . . .71 

CHAPTER VIII. 
HISTORY OF THE TEMPERANCE REFORM. 

The first temperance society in this country . . 73 

The first writers on the subject . . .75 

Dr. Chapin advocates teetotalism . . .76 

The American Temperance Society . . .77 

Dr. Hewitt's successful agency . . .78 

Putnam and the wolf . . . . ,79 



Vlll 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 
80 

80 

81 

81 
81 



Gen. Cass's Address . 

Prize Essay by Professor Stewart . 

Dr. Edwards' visit to Washington . 

Dr. Hewitt goes to England . 

Spirits not allowed in the Army and Navy 

CHAPTER IX. 
INDICATIONS OF PROGRESS. 
Peculiar resolutions .... 
National Convention in Philadelphia 
L. Jackson's efforts in New York 
Progress of the reform 
Mr. C. and the friend of temperance. 
Sermons by Rev. Albert Barnes 
Deacon Giles' Distillery 

E. C. Delavan, Esq., and the Albany Brewers 
The Second National Convention 
The Marine Temperance Society of N. Y. . 
Proposed hospital for inebriates 

CHAPTER X. 
THE WASHINGTONIAN MOVEMENT. 
Its origin ..... 
Hon. T. F. Marshall's Appeal 
Great reduction of the traffic . 
Delaware county, Pa. . 

CHAPTER XL 
THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE TEMPERANCE 

CAUSE IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE WORLD. 
Ireland . . . . . .111 






84 
85 
86 
87 
88 
89 
90 
95 
97 
98 
99 



102 

105 
J 08 
109 



England 

Parliamentary Report 

Scotland 

France 

Sweden and Norway 

Germany 

East Indies . 

Africa . 



112 
113 
115 
116 
117 
118 
119 
119 



CONTENTS. 


IX 




PAGE 


New South Wales . 


. 120 


Polynesia .... 


. 120 


Sandwich Islands 


. 121 


Canada and Nova Scotia 


. 122 


North American Indians 


. 123 


South America 


. 124 



CHAPTER XIL 

CAUSES OF THE RAPID PROGRESS OF THE 
TEMPERANCE REFORM. 

The Cholera 125 

The Press 127 

The advocacy of Ministers . . . .127 

The Medical Profession . . . .128 

Religion the great element of power . .123 

CHAPTER XIII. 

SONS OF TEMPERANCE— ORIGIN AND HIS- 
TORY OF THE ORDER. 

First Grand Division . . . .133 

Organization of the National Division . .134 

Principles and Peculiarities of the Order . .140 

CHAPTER XIV. 

SONS OF TEMPERANCE. — OBJECTIONS 
REFUTED. 

It has thrown difficulties in the way of the old 

societies . . . . . .145 

Oaths are taken . . . . .147 

The Order selfish . . . . .147 

Badges and collars are worn . . .149 

The Order made a substitute for Religion . .150 

The secrecy of the Order . . . .152 

OTHER AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS. 

Daughters of Temperance . . . .156 

Cadets of Temperance .... 156 
Juvenile Sisters of Temperance . . .160 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE PRESENT DEMANDS OF THE TEMPER- 
ANCE REFORM. 



The present aspects of society 


PAGE 

. 162 


The traffic in intoxicating drinks to be restricted, 164 


The drunkard is to be reclaimed . 


. 169 


Treat kindly the drunkard's family 




. 171 


Children must be interested . 




. 171 


A corrupt literature . 




. 171 


Be consistent . 




. 172 


Lecturers must be employed 




. 172 


The Temperance League . 




. 174 


Have noble aims 




. 175 


CHAPTER XVI. 




CONCLUDING APPEAL. 




Appeal to Young Men 


. 177 


Appeal to Ministers . 




. 177 


Appeal to the Medical Profession 




. 178 


Appeal to the Female Sex . 




. 179 


Appeal to Christians . 




. 180 


Appeal to Patriots 




. 181 


LIFE AND DEATH OF KING ALCOH 


0L . 185 


TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES . 




. 203 



THE 



MIRROR OF INTEMPERANCE. 



CHAPTER I. 

HISTORY OF INTEMPERANCE. 

Intemperance is, at this time, the master sin of 
the civilized world. Imagination cannot paint the 
terrible evils which flow from drunkenness. There 
is too little feeling and action on this subject. With 
all the efforts that have been made by the friends of 
temperance, the traffic in alcoholic beverages is still 
rife in the land, diffusing its deadly influences. 
Wherever intemperance has prevailed, it has played 
the part of the ungrateful serpent, and infused its 
deadliest poison into the vitals of its kindest benefac- 
tor. Some of the mightiest nations on earth have 
fallen beneath its giant tread. Our own republic 
has been in great peril from the same cause ; and 
I believe, if our fair land is to go on in her career 
of glory ; if the fair fields of this united confederacy 
are to remain untrod by the minions of despotism ; 
if the flag of our nation's pride is to continue its 
stripes and stars floating high, to cheer the hopes and 
animate the oppressed of every clime ; if the religion 

11 



12 DESIGN OF THE TEMPERANCE CAUSE. 

of Christ is to flourish here and pervade and cement 
all hearts. Temperance must be one of the important 
virtues practised by our citizens, in all parts of the 
land. A great work has been commenced, and re- 
mains to be completed, by the temperance enterprise. 

The grand design of the temperance movement is 
to effect, as speedily as possible, a complete revolu- 
tion in the habits and practices of society, in relation 
to the use of intoxicating drinks. It proposes to dry 
up the fountains of intemperance, by banishing the 
sale of the article which produces the evil. Its aim, 
is to undermine the traffic on one hand, by vigorous 
moral influences, and to bring it down en the other, 
by prohibitory statutes, till it is brought, as near as 
possible, to the point of entire legal proscription. 
Its design is to eradicate strange and deep-rooted 
prejudices and customs, which have come down to 
us from former times ; that have been associated 
with all that is courteous in high life, and with all 
that is merry and jovial in low life, and that have 
entrenched themselves in the strongholds of appetite 
and avarice. 

What was the state of things in relation to this 
subject, at the commencement of the temperance 
reform ? Nearly all kinds of intoxicating beverages 
were then in general use among our countrymen. 
There were then but few persons, whether male or 
female, children or adults, who did not partake of 
stimulating alcoholic drinks in some form. 

The doctor must have alcohol in compounding his 
medicine; the lawyer, in preparing his brief; and 
the clergyman in preparing his sermon. At every 



PREVALENCE OF INTEMPERANCE. 13 

place of public concourse, at the house of feasting 
and at the house of mourning, this enlivening ele- 
ment was deemed indispensable. If young people 
met to dance ; if ecclesiastical bodies met ; if as- 
sessors, or jurors, or arbitrators, or judges, or 
magistrates convened, they must be furnished with 
the sparkling decanters, or bottles of Brandy or 
Rum, or they could not proceed. At huskings or 
bees of every description, nothing could be done 
without the aid of stimulants. On days appointed 
for military drills — for holding courts of justice — for 
the election of civil officers — for literary commence- 
ments — for the celebration of Christmas and New 
Year, and election, there has been more than ordi- 
nary tippling and drunkenness. Not unfrequently 
has the wine and brandy passed freely around in the 
splendid parlor in which the corpse was reposing, 
until many were actually disguised and unable to 
walk to the grave without staggering. 

Says Dr. Nott : — " Even in the exemplary and 
church-going city of Albany, the time was — I re- 
member it well — when pastors and people vied with 
each other in the production of the. best cherry, and 
raspberry, and strawberry brandy; as well as sun- 
dry other quite orthodox alcoholic mixtures, to be 
served occasionally, not only to company, but to be 
administered also to the smaller children as a ver- 
mifuge, and to the larger ones as a stomachic." 

Most private families kept constantly on hand a 
variety of intoxicating liquors, and offered them as 
a matter of civility to all who paid them a friendly 
call ; and it was regarded as inhospitable not to 

2 



14 ALL LOVED ALCOHOL. 

treat friends who called. Spirit rations were allowed 
all who served in the army of the United States. 
Laborers in the harvest field must be furnished with 
a pint or a quart of rum daily, or nothing could be 
done. 

It was regarded as the pleasant cordial ; the 
cheerful restorative ; the friend of the infant ; the 
comforter of the enfeebled mother ; the universal 
token of hospitality. It accompanied the laborer in 
his toil ; went with the mariner on his distant voy- 
age ; cheered and animated the carpenter, the 
mason, the blacksmith, the glass-blower, and other 
mechanics at their various trades. It w T as regarded 
as an excellent domestic medicine, good for a cold, 
a cough, a pain in the stomach or side, and weak- 
ness in the limbs, and loss of appetite and general 
debility. 

Thus the poisonous liquid had come into general 
use, and was as generally abused. 

According to a statistical table, compiled from 
official returns and authentic documents by R. M. 
Hartley, Esq., Secretary of the New York State 
Temperance Society, it appears that the citizens of 
these United States have consumed on an average, 
every year, from the late war up to 1830, more 
than eighty and a half millions of gallons of spiritous 
liquors ; and the annual cost of this was not less 
than thirty-five and a half millions of dollars! 

Thus intemperance became alarmingly prevalent, 
and as generation after generation passed away, 
rivers of blood and countless lives were sacrificed 
at the inglorious shrine of Intemperance, filling the 



ALCOHOL INJURED EVERY CLASS. 15 

land with the weeping of widows, and the wailing 
of orphans. The plague visited every haunt ; poi- 
soned the domestic circle, passed through conse- 
crated groves, and entered the most sacred enclo- 
sures ; chilled the warmest and most patriotic 
hearts ; and entered the very doors of our Capitol, 
and left the stain of its polluting touch upon our 
national glory. It staggered to the bedside of the 
sick and dying, and corrupted even those who wore 
the livery of heaven. 

Monarchs have been humbled and princes abased 
— the wise and the foolish, the learned and the un- 
learned, been the cringing slaves of the tyrant Alco- 
hol. Sages, poets, orators, and statesmen, the jury- 
man in the box, the judge on the bench, the culprit 
at the bar, and the pleader in the forum, have all 
been in turn the victims of this terrible scourge. 
With the prevalence of this evil, a dark and threat- 
ening cloud began to gather over the national firm- 
ament. Our ships of commerce carried with them 
the evidences and stains of American debauchery to 
all the kingdoms of the earth. Foreign nations, 
and even the heathen, lifted up the notes of our 
defamation, and all the w r orld branded us as "a 
nation of drunkards." And had it not been for 
the timely interposition of the friends of Temper- 
ance, and those whose names stand high upon the 
list of patriots and philanthropists, our country must 
soon have been either a tributary to a foreign power, 
or the theatre of anarchy and fratricidal wars. 



16 NATURE OF ALCOHOL. 

CHAPTER II. 

CHARACTERISTICS OF ALCOHOL. 

What is the nature and characteristics of 
•Alcohol, that produced these evils, and was thus 
extensively used in different forms and in dif- 
ferent beverages? 

The word, Alcohol, is derived from two Arabic 
words, al, (the,) and kahol, (denoting a fine mine- 
ral powder.) When distillation was discovered, the 
chemist, seeing the vapor arising from the liquor 
under the process reappear, when condensed, in the 
form of a new liquid, called it Jil Kahol — the fine, 
the sublimated. It is a thin, colourless fluid, lighter 
than water, somewhat volatile, of a pungent smell 
and taste — readily inflaming by the application of a 
lighted taper, burning with a dim blue or purple 
flame. It is produced only by the decomposition of 
animal and vegetable substances in a state of decom- 
position. 

Alcohol, in the Arabic language, was a fine im- 
palpable powder, with which the women used to 
paint their faces in order to increase their beauty. 
Perhaps after using it, they really thought they were 
more beautiful than they were before : men when 
drunk with alcohol, have often thought they were 
more beautiful, or rich, or strong, or in some re- 
spects better than they were before. But they were 
deceived. Alcohol in its nature is deceptive — it is 



NATURE OF ALCOHOL. 17 

a u mocker." He who is deceived thereby " is not 
wise." 

Alcohol was first extracted from fermented liquors, 
about nine hundred years ago, by an Arabian che- 
mist. Arnoldus de Villa, a physician who lived in 
the south of Europe in the thirteenth century, was 
the first, so far as known, who recommended the 
use of the article even as a medicine. Under his 
influence, however, and that of his disciple, Ray- 
mond Lully, who was born in Majorca in 1236, its 
medicinal use was extended, till it spread over a 
great part of Europe. 

Alcohol contained in all liquids, whether wine, 
beer, brandy, rum, gin, or whiskey, is exactly alike', 
the difference in the taste and color of one distilled 
liquor from another, being the result of the different 
substances with which it is combined. The propor- 
tion of alcohol in spiritous liquor, called proof 
spirit, is about fifty per cent. 

Brandy is the spirit distilled from wine, and the 
fermented husks and refuse of grapes, and contains 
about 53 per cent, of alcohol. — 

Gin contains about 52 per cent, of alcohol. 
Scotch Whiskey " 54 " * 

Port Wine from 19 to 26 " " 

Madeira " " 19 to 24 " " 

Currant " « 21 " " 

Sherry, Lisbon, and 

Malaga from 18 to 20 " " 

Claret " « 13 to 17 " " 

Tokay " " 10 " « 



18 ALCOHOL NOT FOUND IN NATURE. 

Alcohol is not found as a constituent principle in 
nature. Go search creation through: "Examine all 
the structures and fluids of that being whom alone 
God has taught to laugh or weep, and of all the 
tribes of animated existence that ' roam the wood, or 
wing the sky, or roll along the flood,' — you find it 
not. Look through all the vegetable kingdom ; 
analyze the alimentary grains, the nutritious seeds, 
the esculent roots and the luscious fruits ; it is not 
there. Then go down to the mineral regions ; search 
through all the strata of earth, and explore the depths 
of old ocean ; it is not there. Nature throughout all 
her domain of things, animate and inanimate, has 
not produced it. Whence comes it then ? Human 
art, led on by the solicitation of depraved instincts, 
has produced it — not by any process of growth and 
development, but by a process of destruction and 
retrogradation. Many persons, even at this day, 
think alcohol is a constituent of vegetable matter. I 
read not long since, in a work evincing much greater 
metaphysical than chemical knowledge, that alcohol 
existed naturally in sugar, from which it was 
merely separated by fermentation and distillation ; 
and this was given as a reason why it is so natural 
for us to love it. Natural ! There never was a 
man, or animal, that did not find it disgusting in 
every shape and abhorrent to every sense, unless his 
or its nature had become changed from its pure and 
pristine condition. This error has had a most dis- 
astrous effect on the popular mind. 

" Let us try to understand this matter. There are 
among those vegetables which the beneficent Creator 



ALCOHOL NOT FOUND IN NATURE. 19 

has caused to grow for our sustenance, various 
proximate principles which are nutritious ; as water, 
sugar, starch, gum, gluten, fibrine, albumen, and 
others, which are called in dietetic works, aliment- 
ary principles. Now so long as these proximate 
principles maintain their natural state, or chemical 
condition, so long are they salutary food and drink, 
but no longer. They are all composed, mainly, of 
certain proportions of oxygen, carbon, hydrogen and 
nitrogen, which constitute their primitive or ultimate 
elements. If the proportions of these ultimate ele- 
ments become changed in any way, the whole nature 
of the substance is altered, and the most healthful 
aliment may thus be converted into the most virulent 
poison. To illustrate : the air we breathe is com- 
posed of about one part of oxygen, to three of nitro- 
gen ; but by combining a greater proportion of 
oxygen, we make aqua fortis, a powerfully corro- 
sive liquid that will decompose the animal structures 
like fire. Water is composed of definite proportions 
of oxygen and hydrogen ; but unite those elements 
in any other proportions, and there is water no long- 
er. A sound potato is wholesome food ; but when 
it rots, its organic state or chemical constitution is 
changed : it is no longer food, and if you eat it you 
will get poisoned. The juice of an apple, or grape, 
is salutary drink ; but let those juices rot, change 
their natural state, or in other words ferment, and 
they are nature's beverage no longer. 

" Now in making alcohol, the nutrient vegetable 
principles undergo fermentation. And what is fer- 
mentation ? In plain language it is simply — a rot- 



20 ALCOHOL NOT FOUND IN NATURE. 

ting process. The proximate, organic, vegetable 
principles putrefy, become decomposed, and are 
physiologically destroyed ; but being subjected to 
certain circumstances of air, temperature and moist- 
ure, some of their ultimate elements, set free by the 
process of decomposition, recombine in new forms 
and produce new substances, one of which is alco- 
hol. The fermentation of leavened bread converts 
a portion of the sugar into carbonic acid gas, and if 
the fermentation is carried too far, the gluten is de- 
stroyed and acetic acid developed — or, as the women 
say, their bread is sour. Hence fermentation in 
the best of bread diminishes its nutritive quali' 
If food ferments in the stomach, instead of digest- 
ing, various acid, acrid and irritating compounds 
are formed, as the dyspeptic well knows — greatly to 
his cost ! and all fermentation, whether penary, sac- 
charine, vinous, acetic, or putrefactive, is simply the 
transformation of matter from its organic or proxi- 
mate, to its ultimate or elementary conditions, in 
different stages of the process of retrogradation and 
destruction. 

" Thus we see that alcohol, so far from being a 
product of growth and organic formation, is exactly 
the contrary — a result of decay and destruction; and 
it has, clearly, no more place among man's beve- 
rages than arsenic has among his foods. The virus 
of the rattlesnake, when taken into the human sto- 
mach, has a pleasant, nervine and exhilarating effect, 
and is, in fact, thus used, a less deadly poison than 
alcohol. But if this virus be inserted under the 
skin, it proves rapidly destructive. Alcohol inserted 



ALCOHOL NOT FOUND IN NATURE. fcl 

under the skin produces only a slight inflammation, 
but if swallowed, its destructive influence over the 
whole nervous system is rapid and powerful. Now 
one is just as veritable a poison as the other, yet 
each operates in its own peculiar way. Such is 
alcohol in itself considered, and such the analysis of 
its ravages on man. 

" But dram drinkers should notice another thing. 
The alcoholic beverages of commerce are even 
worse than the alcohol itself. They do not get the 
alcoholic poison pure; but it is further drugged 
with still other poisons. Read a part of the long 
catalogue of pernicious agents in common use ; 
namely, — Essential Oils, Cocculus Indicus, Log- 
wood, Brazil Wood, Alum, Green Vitriol, Oil of 
Vitriol, Capsicum, Opium, Tobacco, Aloes, Bitter 
Oranges, Henbane, Nux Vomica, Sugar of Lead, 
Oil of Bitter Almonds, India Berry, Poke Berries, 
Elder Berries, Poison Hemlock, Guinea Pepper, 
Laurel Water, Prussic Acid, Dragon's Blood, Lamb's 
Blood, Gum Benzoin, Red Sanders, Burnt Sugar, 
Salt of Tartar, and so on. Here are some of the 
most deadly vegetable and mineral agents in the 
world, with which nearly all the liquors, wines, ales 
and beers in the w r orld, and often cider, are drugged 
and adulterated. A late work on chemistry enume- 
rates forty-six articles commonly used in making 
beer alone ; and almost every species of the light 
and sweet wines, such as ladies sometimes think 
delectable, is extensively adulterated." 

That these articles do enter into the composition 
of the " fine old ports," " clarets," " home-brewed 



22 ALCOHOL DRUGGED. 

ales," and " genuine spirits," offered to a gullible 
public, is certain, even by the testimony of men em- 
ployed in the preparation of alcoholic beverages. 
One of these men, having named various articles em- 
ployed in the preparation of porter, such as cocculus 
indicus, capsicum, powdered copperas and alum, says: 
— " However pernicious or disagreeable these may 
appear, I have always found them to be requisite 
in the brewing of porter ; and they must be used 
by those who wish to continue the taste, flavor, and 
appearance of the beer. The intoxicating qualities 
of porter are to be ascribed to the drugs intermixed 
with it. It is evident some porter is more heady 
than others, and it arises from a greater or less quan- 
tity of stupifying ingredients."* And it is the de- 
liberate opinion of competent judges, that not one 
glass of wine of any description in this country finds 
lis way down the throat of the drinker, but it carries 
with it more or less of the drugs previously named. 
Alcohol is injurious to every part of the human 
constitution. If you consult medical records to learn 
the effect which alcohol has on the human system, 
you there learn that it inflames the coats of the 
stomach, disorders the liver, excites the blood ves- 
sels, poisons the blood, vitiates the secretions, ren- 
ders the bland juices of the body acrid and irritating, 
paralyzes the nerves, hardens the brain, produces 
dropsy, dyspepsia, jaundice, marasmus, consumption, 
gout, rheumatism, eruptions, tumors, carbuncles, 
leads to imbecility, insanity, and delirium tremens, 

* Bacchus, page 28G. 



ALCOHOL INJURES THE BRAIN. 23 

and so on through nearly the whole catalogue of 
human maladies. It diseases the whole constitution, 
taints every fluid, poisons every solid, and it depends 
upon mere casualties what particular form the gene- 
ral disease may assume. 

The effect of alcohol on particular organs of the 
human body is very striking. Says Dr. Sewall : — 
" The inflammation of the brain is sometimes so 
acute from intemperance, that it is marked by furious 
delirium, and terminates fatally in the course of a 
few days, and sometimes a few hours." 

Apply it to an open wound, or bring it in contact 
with an exposed nerve, and it burns like fire. Let 
it be applied a million times to as many fresh 
wounds, or exposed nerves, and every application 
will bring painful evidence of the correctness of this 
statement. Let those who doubt try the experiment. 
It burns the mouth, and hence the practice of taking 
water with grog, and water after grog, to quench 
the fire it always kindles. Alcohol always excites 
the brain and the nerves. As soon can a man 
" carry coals of fire in his bosom, and not be burn- 
ed," as bring alcohol in contact with the brain or 
nerves without powerfully exciting them. 

About one-seventh part of the blood is sent to the 
head, which is several hundred per cent, more, in 
proportion to its size, than is carried to any other 
portion of the system. — This is the testimony of all 
physiologists. Since, then, the irritating effect of 
alcohol on the brain — that organ so closely con- 
nected with the mind — and since so much greater 
a proportion of blood is sent to the head than to any 



24 ALCOHOL INJURES THE BRAIN. 

other part of the system, the effects of alcohol upon 
the mind of man must be most tremendous, either 
for good or evil. The intellectual and moral con- 
stitute the chief dignity of man. He was never 
made merely to eat, sleep, breathe, labor, and die. 
God had higher aims in his creation. He was cre- 
ated mainly to think and feel — to adore God and 
study his works. If, therefore, the effect of alcohol 
is bad, it is bad in the very highest possible degree, 
and bad upon the very essence, and soul, and cen- 
tre of man, because it storms the very citadel of our 
nature. Now by the great amount of blood sent to 
the head, and by the effects of alcohol upon the 
nervous system in general, and the brain in particu- 
lar, and especially upon the internal nervous tract, 
does it irritate and stimulate the brain, and thereby 
exert its baneful influence upon man's immortal 
part. 

Alcohol passes unchanged into the blood and the 
brain, and different organs, producing there the 
same injurious effect as it does when applied exter- 
nally. 

The following fact illustrates the remark just made. 
The occurrence took place in England, and is attested 
by unquestionable authority. A man was taken up 
dead in the streets of London, soon after having 
drank a quart of gin on a wager. He was carried 
to the Westminster Hospital, and there dissected. 
" In the ventricles of the brain was found a con- 
siderable quantity of limpid fluid, distinctly im- 
pregnated with gin, both to the sense of smell and 
taste, and even to the test of inflammability." 



ALCOHOL INJURES THE STOMACH. 25 

The injurious effects of intoxicating drinks upon 
the human stomach, has called forth the research 
of some of the ablest physicians, among whom may 
be named Dr. Sewall. With drawings of the drunk- 
ard's stomach, he has ably and accurately delineated 
the principal morbid changes produced upon that 
organ by intemperance. 

JBy post-mortem examinations, the effects of alco- 
hol have been made apparent upon this delicate 
organ. Dr. Nott has furnished a striking case of 
these effects while in progress. It is as follows : — 

" A young Canadian, St. Martin by name, was 
wounded by a cannon ball, which in its passage 
opened an orifice in his stomach, which, though the 
wound healed, was never closed. Hence it became 
necessary, in order to prevent the escape of food, to 
cover that orifice by a pad. 

" Doctor Beaumont, the army surgeon, who ef- 
fected the cure, being impressed with a sense of the 
importance of the opportunity thus furnished for in- 
vestigating the process of digestion, received the 
young man into his family, and instituted a series 
of experiments, which were continued two or three 
years. 

" During these experiments, he found that when- 
ever St. Martin drank fermented liquor the mucous 
membrane of the stomach was covered with inflam- 
matory and ulcerous patches, the secretions were 
vitiated, and the gastric juice diminished in quan- 
tity, and of an unnatural viscidity, and yet he de- 
scribed himself as perfectly well, and complained of 
nothing. 

3 



26 DEVELOPMENTS TRANSMITTED. 

" Two days subsequent to this, the inner mem- 
brane of the stomach was unusually morbid, the in- 
flammatory appearance more extensive, the spots 
more livid than usual ; from the surface of some of 
them exuded small drops of grumous blood ; the 
ulcerous patches were larger and more numerous ; 
the mucous covering thicker than usual, and the 
gastric secretions much more vitiated. The gastric 
fluids extracted were mixed with a large proportion 
of thick ropy mucus, and a considerable muco- 
purulent discharge, slightly tinged with blood, re- 
sembling discharges from the bowels in some cases 
of dysentery. Notwithstanding this diseased appear- 
ance of the stomach, no very essential aberration of 
its functions was manifested. St. Martin complained 
of no symptoms indicating any general derangement 
of the system, except an uneasy sensation and ten- 
derness at the pit of the stomach, and some verti 
with dimness and yellowness of vision on stooping 
down and rising up again. Doctor Beaumont fur- 
ther observed, that the free use of ardent spirits, 
wine, beer, or any other intoxicating liquor, when 
continued for some days, has invariably produced 
these changes." 

There is another consideration of great interest 
connected w T ith this subject — it is the transmission 
of organism from parent to child. Alcohol dis- 
eases and poisons the whole organization. And it 
is well known that organization, good or bad, is 
transmissible. 

It is a well settled fact, that not only the physical 
and mental developments of parents descend to their 



DEVELOPMENTS TRANSMITTED. 21 

children, but also their particular forms of manifesta- 
tion. Hence, if the appetite of the father solicit or 
reject oysters, ardent spirit, butter, or any other ar- 
ticle, that of the son will be very likely to have the 
same manifestation. The following facts, stated by 
a distinguished writer on physiology, corroborate the 
the above position. The father of Dr. Kimball of 
Sackett's Harbor, N. Y., could never endure the 
taste or smell of butter ; and his son, though a mer- 
chant, will never keep butter in his store, solely from 
the great aversion he has for the article. 

If the acquisitiveness of the parent fasten upon 
landed property, that of his descendants will be 
likely to fasten upon the same. The town records 
of Newbury, Mass., near two centuries ago, required 
the selectmen " to see that Mr. L. gets no more land 
than what belongs to him." The disposition to 
acquire land, which this caution implies, is exhibited 
in his descendants to the present day. Not only is 
the land which he selected in 1640, in Newbury, 
still owned by his descendants of the same name, but 
they have been eager to acquire land, land especially, 
in distinction from other property, and they have 
acquired immensely large tracts. 

Now alcohol stimulates the animal passions of the 
parent, and weakens his moral and intellectual na- 
ture, and transmits the same characteristics to his 
children. Hence the children of drunkards are not 
apt to be so intellectual or moral as those of the tem- 
perate. Nor is it necessary that the father should 
be a drunkard, only, that he should love and long 
after the " good creature." 



28 DEVELOPMENTS TRANSMITTED. 

And as the propensities and desires usually de- 
scend in the line of the father, his love of stimulants 
is more liable to be transmitted than are his talents 
— thus visiting the iniquities of the father upon the 
children unto the third and fourth generations. 

A committee of the British Parliament, in their 
report on this subject, say — " Intemperate parents, 
according to high medical testimony, give a taint to 
their offspring. The poisonous stream of ardent spi- 
rits is conveyed through the milk of the mother to 
the infant at the breast, so that the fountain of 1 
through which nature supplies that pure and healthy 
nutriment in infancy, is poisoned at its source. A 
diseased appetite is created, which grows with its 
growth, and strengthens with its increasing weak- 
ness and decay." * 

* The following fact, from a writer on Physiology, corroborate! 
the above position : — 

Three brothers by the name of Downing, who emigrated with 
William Penn, and took up land on Chester Creek, which still 
remains in the family, were all remarkably honest, industrious, 
and temperate — as have been all their descendants — except I 
of one, "riowcr of the flock," who was a state senator, and by 
being much in public life, learned to sing songs, crack jokes, and 
drink wine after dinner, and other stimulants, till he felt merry, 
yet never to absolute drunkenness. 

A daughter of his, not known to have loved stimulants, and an 
excellent woman, had four sons, three of whom were noted drunk- 
ards ; and the fourth was fast following in the same steps, but 
saw his danger, and took in a reef or two, yet would get dis- 
guised on public days. One of these four brothers had two sons, 
one of whom died at twenty-two, an occasional tippler; and the 
other is a confirmed sot. The eldest of these four brothers had 
five children by a superior wife ; two sons of which, in spite of 
the restraining influences of the mother, formed drinking habits, 



ALCOHOL, NO GOOD QUALITY. 29 

Dr. Caldwell remarks, that " in hundreds of in- 
stances, parents who have had children born while 
their habits were temperate, have become afterwards 
intemperate, and had other children born. In such 
cases, it is matter of notoriety that the younger chil- 
dren have become addicted to the practice of intoxi- 
cation much more frequently than the elder, in the 
proportion of five to one." 

In fact, a drunken parent can never be the father 
or mother of sound and healthy children. Think 
of this, fathers and mothers, when you behold chil- 
dren for whose early depravity, and imperfect organ- 
ization you are unable to account. True, intem- 
perate habits in the parent, is only one of several 
causes of depraved and imperfect offspring ; nor is 
it designed to teach here, that all are not depraved, 
but simply that intemperance in the parent, usually 
has a decided effect upon the organization of the 
child, and is an exciting cause of youthful depravity. 

There is, in fact, no good quality in alcohol : i.4; 
has no redeeming virtue ; it contributes to no man's 
health — it protracts no man's life. It fosters no 
devotion in the divine ; it imparts no skill to the 
physician — no power to the advocate ; it develops 
no ingenuity in the mechanic ; it adds no strength 
or power of endurance to the laborer. Every where 
its influence is evil, and only evil continually. 

but were reclaimed by the temperance movement. Thus most 
of the descendants, as far as known, for five generations, of this 
wine-loving senator, except one daughter, inherited a love of 
stimulants ; and this love increased as it descended. 



30 ALCOHOL A POISON. 



CHAPTER III. 

ALCOHOL A POISON. 

That alcohol is a poison, is a Well settled feet — 
by the testimony of all who are best qualified to 
judge. 

Chemists, whose business it is to analyze the pro- 
perties of substances, and to settle the verdict of a 
jury of inquest in case of death by poison, testify 
that the substance which intoxicates, and which men 
so much love and seek in brandy, rum, wine, and 
other liquors, is alcohol — one of the most active 
and powerful of the narcotic vegetable poisons. 

And what is the testimony of the most eminent 
medical authorities on this point ? 

The highest medical authorities of Great Britain, 
being examined in large numbers before the com- 
mittee appointed by the British Parliament to inqi 
into the causes of drunkenness, unanimously testi: 
as follows : — "Ardent spirits are absolutely poisonous 
to the human constitution ; that in no case whatever 
are they necessary, or even useful to persons in 
health ; that they are always, in every case, and to 
the smallest extent, deleterious, pernicious, or de- 
structive, according to the proportions in which they 
may be taken into the system." 

The celebrated Sir Astley Cooper, than whom no 
one could be more qualified to give an opinion on 



ALCOHOL A POISUxV. 31 

the subject, has declared — " I never suffer ardent 
spirits in my house, thinking them evil spirits : and 
if the poor could witness the white livers, the drop- 
sies, the shattered, nervous systems which I have 
seen, as the consequences of drinking, they would 
be aware that spirits and poisons are synonymous 
terms/ 5 

The learned Dr. Darwin, F. R. S., includes wine, 
beer, and cider, in his list of vegetable poisons, be- 
cause they contain alcohol. Opium he ranks first, 
alcohol second, after this, distilled laurel water, es- 
sential oil of tobacco, deadly night-shade, henbane, 
cocculus indicus, nux vomica, hemlock, &c. 

Dr. Gordon, physician to the London Hospital, 
observed to the English parliamentary committee, 
that " it would be difficult to find a more destruc- 
tive poison than ardent spirits." Dr. Farre, be- 
fore the same committee, delared that alcohol is in 
the " strict sense a jjoison" 

Between three and four hundred physicians in the 
city of New York, and about seven thousand in 
America and Europe, have added their testimony to 
that of the medical authorities before cited, that al- 
cohol is a destructive poison. Thus we have arrayed 
before us, a jury of more than seven thousand men, 
disinterested and intelligent, and in every respect 
competent to settle the question. In opposition to 
such evidence, will any man declare that alcohol in 
any form is a wholesome or a harmless beverage ? 



32 OTHER STIMULANTS. 

OTHER INTOXICATING BEVERAGES BESIDES 
ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS. 

Man naturally seeks pleasurable excitements, 
which has led to the invention of various stimu- 
lating beverages. 

The Israelites early learned that the luscious fruit 
of Eshcol would ferment, and produce exhilaration. 
Noah, immediately after he left the ark, planted a 
vineyard, and drank of the wine produced therein. 
Besides the common juice of the grape, it is evident 
from the strength of the beverages drank among the 
Israelites, that they were acquainted with the art of 
mixing stupifying and exhilarating drugs with their 
wine. The means of intemperance were posses 
by the antediluvians, as is evident from the drunk- 
enness of Noah and others. And very likely drunk- 
enness was one of the crying sins that incensed the 
Creator to bring a flood upon the old world. 

In India, a powerful liquor is produced by fer- 
menting the sweet sap of the palm-tree, and at 
wards extracting the spirit by the use of the alembic, 
or still — as is likewise done from a fermented liquor 
made by steeping rice in water. Both these liquors 
are known as Jirrack ; the first is said to partake 
much of the qualities of rum, and the latter of whis- 
key. Arrack, manufactured from rice, is said to 
have been in use in India at the time of Alexander's 
expedition to that country, and is mentioned by the 
historians of that period as rice wine. 

Another agent of intoxication, in popular use 



OTHER STIMULANTS. 33 

nearly all over the Eastern World, from Turkey in 
Europe to the Celestial Empire, is opium. In Eng- 
land, and various other regions, it is cut in small 
pieces of about an inch square, and eaten in doses 
of smaller or larger quantities. In China, it is the 
practice to use this drug as others do tobacco, — by 
burning it in a pipe, and inhaling the smoke. 
The deleterious nature of this drug (which Dr. 
Darwin in his Materia Medica places at the head 
of vegetable poisons), is such, that the opium eater, 
in his first attempt to vitiate his appetite, is obliged 
to proceed with the greatest caution — commencing 
with about the fortieth part of an ounce, and gra- 
dually increasing the dose, as the sensibility of the 
system becomes diminished by irritation. 

Sir Stamford Raffles, in his history of Java, speak- 
ing of opium, says : — " At all times it leaves a slow 
poison, which undermines the faculties of the soul, 
and the constitution of the body, and renders a per- 
son unfit for all kinds of labor, and an image of the 
brute creation." 

In Asia and Polynesia great use is made of the 
betels as an agent of exhilaration. This consists of 
the leaves of a plant bearing that name, and the 
fruit of a species of palm-tree, called areca, which 
being chewed together — the nut wrapped in the betel 
leaf — produces a degree of intoxication similar to 
the stupor resulting from the first use of tobacco. 

Others in Eastern countries resort for a stimulant 
to an article called bang, or bangue, which is made 
from the seeds of the hemp plant. This is smoked 
like opium, in huge pipes called " hobble-bobbles.' 5 



34 OTHER STIMULANTS. 

The Chilian and Peruvian Indians, along the 
range of the Andes, make use of a stimulant called 
the coca. They eat the leaves of a tree of this 
name, after they have become dry. The use of the 
coca to the South Americans is their great source of 
poverty, disgrace, sickness, and death. The person 
who uses the article, becomes a slave to his passion, 
even more than the drunkard. Such is the infatua- 
tion of the person who becomes addicted to the use 
of this article, even of those who are refined and 
civilized, that he will flee from civilized life, and 
dwell with the savage, that he may enjoy his mad 
career and indulge his appetite. He will sometimes 
seclude himself from the society of all his fellows, 
and bury himself in the seclusion of some woody 
wilderness. And when night, which is doubly 
uwful in the gloomy forest, covers the earth, he re- 
mains stretched out under the tree which he has 
chosen, without the protection of a fire near him. 
He listens with indifference to the growling of the 
ounce ; and when amid peals of thunder the clouds 
pour down rain in torrents, or the fury of the hurri- 
cane uproots the oldest trees, he regards it not. In 
about two days he generally returns, pale and trem- 
bling, his eyes sunk — a fearful picture of unnatural 
indulgence. 

Humboldt describes a filthy liquor in use among 
the Mexicans, called pulque, which he says smells 
like putrid flesh. However, it will intoxicate, and 
therefore is relished by the natives. It is made from 
the maguey aloe, which is grown in extensive plan- 
tations for the sole purpose of making pulque from 



OTHER STIMULANTS. 35 

it. The plant from which this article is produced 
is entirely unprofitable until it has attained to 
about its eighth year, when it gives indications 
of putting forth its flowers. A wound is made in 
the heart of the maguey, and the juice is sucked out 
of the wound and put into hog-skin bottles, and in 
them carried to the vat, which is lined with bulls' 
hides — from which, after fermentation, it is returned 
to the hog-skin. According to Humboldt, a very 
vigorous plant will yield as much as twelve pints of 
juice each day, during four or five months ; giving 
in the aggregate the enormous measure of about two 
hundred gallons. 

The Tartars produce a spirit from fermented mare^s 
milk, which, according to numerous experiments 
of Parmentier, contains in its pure state a greater 
amount of sugar, (by the destruction of which alcohol 
is produced,) than that either of the cow, goat, or 
sheep. 

When, in addition to these stimulants, we see the 
Caffre prepare his " pombie," the Nubian his 
"bouza," and the Yankee his " potato whiskey," 
— the inhabitant of Kamtschatka his " raka" of grass 
— of Otaheite the root of the "tee," we have the 
strongest proofs of the universal prevalence of the 
love of excitement. 



36 ALCOHOL WASTES PROPERTY. 



CHAPTER IV. 

ALCOHOL AN ENEMY TO THE BEST INTE- 
RESTS OF MAX. 

Let us look in detail at some of the evils of the 
use of this article, and at the ways in which this 
destroyer commits his ravage 

1. %/ind } first) •llcohol is an enemy to the 
pecuniary interests of society — an immense 
waste of property is effected by the use of this 
article. 

Intoxicating drinks devour the substance, and 
enervate all the productive energies of the people, 
and thus prey at the roots of the public wealth. It 
has been demonstrated, that this article costs our 
nation more than one hundred millions of dollars 
annually. Now no equivalent is returned for this 
money. If this money were actually sunk in the 
bottom of the sea, it would be better for us ; for it 
has been as seed sown to produce a harv \ ils. 

Think of it, as it pervades the social interests of 
society, corrupting the morals, destroying indus 
producing poverty and crime. 

It is impossible to estimate the extent of the inci- 
dental evils growing out of this waste of mo?. 
Every year there are men lost to themselves and the 
country, whose worth no millions could represent. 
Look, too, at the wreck of talents and virtue, the 



ALCOHOL INJURES SOCIAL INTERESTS. 37 

sacrifice of character and life. The evil thus presses 
destructively on that vital connection which subsists 
between the virtue of a people, and the well being 
of a state. 

Alcohol fills our poor-houses with paupers. In- 
temperance has entered the houses of our citizens, as 
a friend, and taken their food from their tables, and 
their clothing from their beds, and their fuel from 
their fire, and turned their lands over to others, and 
drove them from their dwellings, to subsist on beg- 
gary and crime, or drag out a miserable existence in 
penitentiaries and almshouses. More than 150,000 
of the wretched tenants of these abodes of poverty 
in the United States, were reduced by intemperance. 
Yes, fellow-citizens, your property is taxed for the 
support of the paupers of our country, a great part 
of whom have been made such by intemperance. 

2. Jllcohol is an enemy to the social interests 
of our nation. 

O, my friends, back of all the visible outward 
evils of intemperance, there lies a field of devasta- 
tion, which has never been fully explored. — It is the 
wasted realm of the social affections — the violated 
sanctuary of domestic peace. Within the sphere of 
social devastation, there is a vast amount of con- 
cealed wretchedness, which only occasionally comes 
to light, and has never been properly guaged. With- 
in concealed enclosures, where this enemy works, 
there is a bitterness of anguish, which can never be 
known but by those who have tasted the cup them- 
selves. Look on those innumerable hearts that have 
long silently bled over the ruin of all their dearest 

4 



38 ALCOHOL DERANGES THE PHYSICAL SYSTEM. 

hopes, till their anguish must be openly re- 
vealed. What multitudes of such still live and 
weep ; and what multitudes have fallen under the 
pressure of their grief into the grave ! See this de- 
stroyer yearly reducing to wretchedness multitudes 
of families — quenching the light of many thousand 
homes in despair. Could the social condition of our 
nation be made evident, so as to reveal the burdens 
of grief that are hidden in desolate homes — the 
bursting hearts of parents for their ruined sons ; of 
wives from whose life all joy and hope have de- 
parted ; of children reduced to want and disgrace — 
we should ask no further evidence of the wide-spread 
ruin occasioned by intemperance. 

3. Again, Alcohol is an enemy to man's phy- 
sical jwwers and interests. 

Consider this important fact in connection with 
this subject. The use of ardent spirits creates a 
burning appetite for more ; and almost uniformly, he 
who indulges in them, creates a passionate thirst for 
them, which ultimately overcomes the will of its vic- 
tim, and drags him down to a drunkard's grave. 
After a while, a deep-wrought physical effect will be 
produced ; a delirious appetite of the nature of a 
physical necessity will seize the man, and crush 
from his heart both the power and the wish of self- 
control. The raging thirst must be quenched with 
a draught which only adds fuel to the flame. This 
is a physical infliction. 

Think of the unnatural excitement of body and 
mind, in the poor inebriate — the derangement of all 
his powers, palsied faculties, and some wrought up 



ALCOHOL WASTES LIFE. 39 

to a pitch of action bordering on delirium. In this 
state, he is ready for almost any act which a de- 
praved heart may suggest. 

Alcohol destroys health and life. There is no 
form of disease, that is not fostered and aggravated 
by intemperance, while there is a long list of mala- 
dies peculiar to itself. 

Shall we point you to ten thousand shadows of 
human existence in the last stages of wasting dis- 
eases, brought on by the use of liquor ? Shall we go 
to the grave-yard, and ask tombstones how many of 
its victims lie beneath them ? Ah ! if they might 
tell the truth, how affecting, how alarming would be 
their testimony! How often is the drunkard found, 
stretched by the wayside, on the cold and damp 
earth, dead drunk ; exposed to the w T heels of the 
traveller ; drenched by rains ; wet with the dew of 
heaven ; shivering under the pimping blasts of win- 
ter, or perhaps lying stiff, in the iron slumbers of 
death. One out of sixty, or 300,000 of our popula- 
tion, are drunkards ; and 30,000 die annually the 
drunkard's death. The ravages of war, famine, and 
pestilence, do not equal those of this destroyer. The 
yellow fever in Philadelphia in 1793, felt to be a dread- 
ful curse, destroyed but 4000. In the war of 1812, the 
sword- devoured but 500 a year. Intemperance de- 
stroys more than 500 a week. From estimates re- 
cently made, we may safely conclude that 80,000 in 
Great Britain, and 300,000 in France, perish annu- 
ally by the use of this poison. The Duke of Orleans 
recently declared to a distinguished American gen- 
tleman, that more than one-third of the population 



40 ALCOHOL INVADES MORAL INTERESTS. 

of France were engaged either in the production or 
sale of intoxicating drinks. Thus we have in these 
three most enlightened countries on earth, nearly a 
half a million of human beings — an army more nu- 
merous than that of Napoleon in his glory — every 
year slain by this great destroyer. What a terrible 
carnage is here ! Where is the heart that does not 
bleed, because of the loss of some dear relative, 
friend, or companion? We may indeed say with 
the prophet, " The land mourneth because of drunk- 
enness." 

4. Besides, Alcohol is an invade? 9 of the moral 
interests of society. 

Every where it is the prolific parent of vice and 
crime. The use of this article is a central vice, a 
radiating point for all crime. This poison hardens 
the heart, breaks down the conscience, quickens the 
circulation, goads up every passion to a high pitch 
of excitement, makes men disregard law and right, 
and prepares them for the commission of any crime. 
A few years since, a husband, having murdered his 
wife, with his own hand butchered his six mother- 
less children, and placed one of them to broil on the 
fire ! 

The following is a striking case of the effect of 
this poison in preparing men for crime : — 

The late Mr. Southwell, of the Liverpool Custom 
House, having dismissed one of the workmen on ac- 
count of drunkenness, the man determined on re- 
venge ; and as Mr. Southwell had to pass through a 
certain gateway every morning on his way to the 
office, the man posted himself in the way, with a 



ALCOHOL EXCITES TO CRIME. 41 

loaded pistol, and there awaited the approach of his 
victim. But as the time drew near, misgivings be- 
gan to arise in his mind, and he shuddered at the 
enormity of the murder he meditated. In order to 
prepare himself, he purchased and drank off a glass 
of rum, This, however, was insufficient. He was 
not yet ready to become Satan's instrument for the 
perpetration of one of the foulest crimes ; and the 
effect of a second glass was tried. Still this was in- 
sufficient ; and before humanity was subdued, a third 
glass was drank. This prepared him. The helm 
was now put into the hands of the fiend ; and when 
Southwell had come within proper distance, he exe- 
cuted his nefarious deed — and his victim lay a corpse 
before him ! 

" By one fatal act," said Judge Edwards, in pro- 
nouncing sentence of death on James Ransom, 
"your wife has been sent to the cold and silent 
mansions of the dead, your children were deprived 
of all the endearments and fostering care of their 
mother, and you are fated to expiate your offence 
upon a gallows. What could have so perverted 
your nature? What could have so steeled your 
heart ? The answer is, intoxicating liquor. It has 
had the effect to estrange you from the most endear- 
ing relation, from the ties of blood, from your obli- 
gations to your fellow-beings, and to your Creator." 
What other poison in the universe could prepare 
men for the perpetration of such heaven-daring 



crimes t 



5. More than this, Alcohol destroys the human 
intellect. 

4* 



42 EXAMPLES OF RUINED INTELLECT. 

This poison attacks the citadel of the soul, enfee- 
bling and wasting every faculty. By it, the noblest 
intellect is prostrated and laid in ruins. My friends, 
I appeal to your own observation. — Have you not 
seen the masculine and discriminating understand- 
ing, dwindle into premature old age, and second 
childhood, by the use of strong drink? Have you 
not seen the promising youth of the finest genius, 
and most acute mind, prostrated by the touch of this 
withering demon ? 

Says Mr, Notter, of New Haven, in a temperance 
address : — " My heart bleeds, as I remember the 
fate of three of my early companions, who started in 
life with myself. One of them possessed the finest 
mathematical mind I ever knew. He would take 
the ledger, and go up with three columns at a time, 
with perfect ease. He was the first man in America 
that beat the automaton chess-player ; and he told 
me he had every move in his head before he entered 
the room. That man filled a drunkard's grave. 
Another, who was an excellent accountant, and 
could command almost any salary, met the same 
melancholy fate. Another, possessing the same bril- 
liant capabilities, has gone down — not to the grave 
perhaps, but is sunk clear out of sight, by the mire 
and filth of intemperance." 

Notice the dreadful havoc of this destroyer among 
Briton's gifted sons : — 

You see there a Shakspeare, the glory of the Bri- 
tish drama — whose fame is destined to go down to 
the end of time, as the great master of his art — per- 
ishing in the infernal embrace of this idol. 



ALCOHOL PRODUCES INSANITY. 43 

See there a Byron — of whom his eulogist has 
said — 

" He touched his harp, and nations heard, entranced — 
As some vast river of unfailing source, 
Rapid, exhaustless, deep, his numbers flowed, 
And opened new fountains in the human heart. 

" As some fierce comet of tremendous size, 
To which the stars did reverence as it passed, 
So he through learning and through fancy took 
His flight sublime, and on the loftiest top 
Of fame's dread mountain sat." 

Yet to that sublime and fearful eminence, did intem- 
perance dare to lift up its impious arm — dragged 
down England's gifted bard to the disgrace of a 
drunkard's grave. 

Cowley, Burns, Dryden, Moore, and others, who 
rank as stars of the first magnitude, in the firmament 
of literary fame, were all stricken down from the 
meridian heights of their glory, by the same destruc- 
tive arm. 

And what an amount of lunacy and idiocy, are 
produced by this poison ! 

Of 781 maniacs in different insane hospitals, 392, 
according to the testimony of their own friends, and 
the physicians who had the care of them, were 
brought to this condition by intemperance. 

The report of a committee, appointed to inquire 
in regard to the idiots of Massachusetts, showed that 
eleven-twelfths of this pitiable class were born of 
intemperate parents ! 

Dr. Waters, of the Pennsylvania Hospital, years 
ago, assured Dr. Rush that one-third of the patients 



44 ALCOHOL INVADES RELIGIOUS INTERESTS. 

confined in the asylum, on account of madness, had 
brought upon themselves that terrible disease by the 
use of ardent spirits. 

These facts speak volumes in reference to the 
desolating effect of this poison, on the mental 
powers. 

6. Finally, I remark, on the ravages of this 
destroyer, that it operates most destructively on 
the interests of religion. And this it does in three 
ways, among others. First, in preventing its im- 
pressions ; secondly, as a hinderance to its pr 
and thirdly, as a cause of declension. 

(1.) Alcohol acts as a preventive to religious 
impressions* 

When intemperance has taken possession of a 
person, the heart lo :ie and vigor. The 

ligious susceptibilities are blunted, ii it The 

sensual spirit, like a strong man armed, keeps the 
house. Lying under the bondage of the {want a' 
hoi, the soul cannot be redeemed. These chains 
must be broken ; this moral besotment must 
moved, before the principle of purity, and the 1 
of God, can enter the heart. Hence, where the 
temperance enterprise has been triumphant, it has 
wrought great changes, and prepared the way for 
the diffusion of pure religion. 

Besides this, the intemperate neglect the religious 
and mental education of their children. Their de- 
pravity renders them careless of their welfare. 

" Do you go to the Sunday school, Tomr 
inquired a person the other day, of a boy who was 
playing before the door. " No, ma'am," was the 



ALCOHOL PREVENTS RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS. 45 

reply. " Why don't you go ? you 're getting a big 
lad," he was again asked. " Because I have no 
Sunday clothes. These," he said, laying hold of 
his ragged trowsers, and looking over his no better 
jacket and waistcoat, " are all I have." He had a 
drunken father, who was afraid that the expense of 
procuring decent clothing for his children, would 
diminish his own indulgence. 

" Drink makes us an unhappy family," once said 
a poor woman ; " my husband is a drunkard, and 
spends all the money he can get. We cannot keep 
a bible^ nor afford to send our children to school. 
Instead of attending a place of worship on the sab- 
bath, we have nothing but drunken quarrels and 
fighting all day." 

(2.) •Alcohol acts as a hinderance to the pro- 
gress of religion. 

Unquestionably it has been the most potent of all 
the emissaries of Satan, to check the progress of true 
religion in the world. It obliterates the fear of the 
Most High — turns men away from the sanctuary, or 
steels their hearts against the truth, if they go there, 
and renders them unimpressible by the means of 
grace — stirs up the vileSt passions of the human 
heart, and fills the regions of eternal woe, with pre- 
cious immortal souls. 

If, on the holy sabbath, the minister of religion 
rises at an earlier hour than usual, to prepare for the 
services of the day, the vender of intoxicating drinks, 
and maker of drunkards, is up as soon, preparing to 
counteract the efforts of his rival — " the priest of 
the Most High." The public services of the latter 



46 ALCOHOL PREVENTS THE SPREAD OF 

extend over three or four hours in the day ; but the 
counteracting efforts of the former, extend over the 
whole of the remainder. 

Says a clergyman, who had been officiating eigh- 
teen years in an agricultural parish — a meeting of 
ministers was called to consult about the expediency 
of introducing total abstinence societies, to check the 
ravages of intemperance : — 

" It fell to my lot to open the discussion. I did 
so, by asking them, severally, i What is the sin in 
your parish, which you feel to be the greatest ob- 
struction to your ministry?' The answer from them 
all was — < Drunkenness.' " 

Intemperance is the greatest obstacle to the spread 
of religion in heathen and Mahomedan count, its. 

An unfortunate Mussulman at Constantinople, who 
under the influence of wine had become intOJ 
was tied upon a lame mule, with his face towards 
the tail of the animal. Upon his head was placed a 
European (Christian's) hat, and behind him was tied 
a dog, back to back. After having paraded him 
through the streets, stopping at every fountain to 
sprinkle him with water and mud, he was taken 
by the populace to the banks of the Bosphorus, and 
plunged into the water w T ith his innocent companion. 
The hair of the dog was then cut off in the form of 
a cross , and the beard of the Mussulman was shaved 
off with the same razor. He was subsequently 
plunged twice into the Bosphorus, to effect his puri- 
fication. Thus was Christianity ridiculed, because 
nominal Christians had introduced intemperance. 

Says a missionary in the Evangelical Magazine — 



RELIGION IN FOREIGN LANDS. 47 

" From my knowledge of Europeans in New Zea- 
land, I do not hesitate to say, that their example in 
encouraging drunkenness and fornication, tends more 
than any thing else to counteract our missionary ope- 
rations. When European and other shipping touch 
at the harbors, their crews are like a pestile?ice 
among the natives." 

The conversion of Tahiti took place about the 
year 1813; but as early as 1803, habits of drunk- 
enness had been spread among them by European 
and American ships. Trading vessels often took 
scarcely any thing at all to barter with the natives, 
but muskets, ammunition, and ardent spirits — 
chiefly " New England Rum." This was sold in 
large quantities, at exceedingly low prices. Even 
king Pomare, who was instrumental in effecting the 
mighty change in the religion of the country, was 
not free from the vice of drunkenness. His mother 
hastened her death by the use of ardent spirits. In 
consequence of the large quantities of liquor intro- 
duced, (in the words of the missionary in 1833,) 
" at one station, upwards of a hundred individuals 
ivere excluded from the church." 

(3.) But further, Alcohol is a powerful agent 
in religious declension. It has plucked down 
many of the brightest stars of the Christian church. 
It has found its way into the pulpit, and made a 
Judas of the minister of Christ. Says a Methodist 
minister, in the Ipswich Tracts, No. 48 : — 

" About twenty-seven years ago, fifteen young 
men started in the world, of whom I am one : they 
also at this time set out on a profession of religion. 



48 EXAMPLES OF RELIGIOUS APOSTACY. 

They were nearly all of one age ; all of respectable 
talents and standing in society ; all of them members 
of the same church ; teachers in the same Sunday 
school — attended the same prayer meetings. In- 
deed, they were linked together in all good works 
and words — the hope of the church, and the means 
of blessing the world. Now, after the lapse of 
twenty-seven years, let me see what has become of 
all this promise and hope. 

11 Two of the number died in the triumphs of 
faith. Three still remain members of the same 
church." Of several others, he speaks thus: — 

" One went to the West Indies, and in a few 
years destroyed a fine constitution by drink, and its 
attendant vices: he died, on his passage home, a 
drunkard's death ! One went out with his com- 
panions on a Sunday excursion, in a boat; took bot- 
tles of wine and brandy with them — got intoxicated 
— upset the boat — and all found a watery grave* 
Another, was respectably married; his pi 
were promising ; but he acquired the habit of re- 
sorting to the ale-house. From little he went to 
mare 7 and from more to much; and the last time I 
saw him, ruin — awful ruin — was indelibly, I fear, 
written upon his brow. He is an outcast from the 
church, his family, and the world." 

Of another, he says: — "I saw him some years 
since ; and he looked more like a beer barrel, than 
a man — a perfect specimen of a bloated bacchanal- 
ian." He gives some account of the others, and 
adds — " Thus has the 'promise and hope' of nine, 
out of the fifteen, been blighted by the drinking 
customs." 



EXAMPLES OF RELIGIOUS APOSTACY. 49 

Probably every clergyman of experience will be 
prepared to admit, that no cause has been so pro- 
lific in staining Christian character, and in effecting 
excommunications, as Intemperance.* 

Who that has any regard to the welfare of immor- 
tal souls, will not, in view of such results, exert his 
best influence to effect the great change contem- 
plated by the temperance movement ? 

u Knowest thou the value of a soul immortal ? 
Behold this midnight glory : worlds on worlds : 
Amazing pomp ! Redouble this amaze ; 
Ten thousand add, and twice ten thousand more ; 
Then weigh the whole — one soul outweighs them all ! " 



* The injunction so pointedly laid upon the Jewish Priests by 
God himself, not to drink wine or strong drink, when about to 
engage in the services of religion, and also upon the Nazarenes, 
was doubtless dictated by Jehovah in view of the demoralizing 
effects of those drinks. In the tenth chapter of Leviticus, we 
have an account of the deaths of Nadab and Abihu, for offering 
strange fire before the Lord, which occurred probably under the 
influence of a perverted judgment, occasioned by those drinks : 
for God from this time required total abstinence of Aaron, and 
the entire priesthood, when they engaged in those services. — 
" Do not drink wine or strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with 
thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye 
die: and it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations." 
— Lev. x. 9. 



60 CAUSES OF INTEMPERANCE. 



CHAPTER V. 

CAUSES OF INTEMPERANCE. 

The question nfay arise — Why do not all who 
know the evils produced by JilcohoU abstain 
from its use? 

Let us pass in review then some of the more 
general, and also particular, causes of the prevalence 
of intemperance in our land. 

1. Our views of liberty had an effect perhaps 
in causing the rapid spread of this evil. \]\ 
man here feels that he is a freeman — that he is fi 
from every tyrant's chain. This spirit of liberty 
and independence may encourage some, who do not 
realize the true nature of liberty, to throw off the 
salutary restraints of religion and morality — to turn 
their liberty to licentiousness, and the free gratifica- 
tion of their lusts. Thus liberty, a precious boon, is 
converted into a curse. 

2. The laws of our country have eneoun 
the free use of Alcohol. The business of selling 
the article has been legalized and authorized by the 
several legislatures, and certain persons licensed to 
sell the poison. The whole authority of the state is 
brought to bear in favor of it ; and men regard a 
license from the civil authorities, a sanction for the 
business. 



CAUSES OF INTEMPERANCE. 51 

3. Again, national habits, till within the last 
Jew years , sanctioned the practice of drinking 
intoxicating liquors. It was generally regarded 
as a useful and very important drink. The young 
were gradually trained to love it. The morning 
dram of the parents, often made all the children 
drunkards. In a single school of ninety children, 
twenty-five were intemperate. The teacher said 
their taste w T as acquired, by their dipping their 
bread in whiskey in the morning. 

4. The desire of excitement, and of society, 
also contributed to encourage intemperance. — 
These are elements in our nature, designed to pro- 
mote our social happiness and enjoyment. Young 
men often find a strong propensity for excitement, 
and as they have not at hand the means of a manly 
and rational enjoyment in the gratification of this 
desire, they resort to the bar-room, or grog shop, or 
oyster saloon, to get some stimulants which will 
minister to this desire. Beware, beloved youth ! 
this is a critical moment in your history — Obsta 
principiis. Stand off from danger. Avoid the 
first beginnings of evil, or the first steps will be 
taken in that downward course, which will lead you 
to the precipice of perdition. 

5. Men often take Alcohol to drown present 
sorrow. Witness the following case. A man lost 
his wife, the mother of his children, and he was in 
great distress. He took some of the stimulating poi- 
son, and under its influence seemed full of mirth. 
He seized the dead body of his wife, and in high 
glee dragged her across the room by the hair of her 



52 CAUSES OF INTEMPERANCE. 

head, and threw her into the coffin. Bat the end 
of that mirth is heaviness, and the sorrow that 
worketh death. 

6. Theatres must not be overlooked, in noting 
the causes of intemperance. 

Boys and young men who frequent the theatre, 
are in the midst of temptations to drinking and every 
vice. Late hours, dissolute companions, licentious 
conversation, and the temptations of the lobby, sa- 
loons, and bar, combined at one spot, under cover 
of night, and beyond the pale of virtuous - 
are causes of dreadful energy, to the action of which 
parents and guardians should look with sleep 
vigilance. 

7. Gambling is another cause of intemper- 
ance. 

Drinking is the inseparable habit of every gaming 
table ; and drinking to excess at such a spot, is no 
discredit, but the reverse. It is the order of the 
day — the fashion of the time and place. Could the 
number who frequent gaming tables in large cil 
be presented aggregately, and could it be known 
how many fall before the destroyer at such places, it 
would make society shudder. 

8. Sabbath amusements and employmi 
operate as a fruitful cause of intemperance. 

How are our young men engaged on the sabbath? 
A few go to the sanctuary. But what multitudes 
are found on that sacred day, in steamboats and 
stages ; how many are in houses of gambling and 
licentiousness ; how many crowd the railways, and 
take excursions to neighbouring villages! And all 



CAUSES OF INTEMPERANCE. 53 

this for excitement and amusement. This is a great 
encouragement to intemperate habits, 

9. Again, disappointment in business, and the 
blighting of hope, is a prolific cause of drunken- 
ness. 

All are liable to reverses ; and when troubles 
have come thick upon a man, there will be a tre- 
mendous revulsion of feeling, and mortification. 
Multitudes under such trials fail to resort to proper 
means for consolation, and fly to stimulants. They 
obtain a soothing but fatal hallucination in alcoholic 
beverages, and make a wreck of body and soul, and 
every interest for time and eternity. 

10. Stimulating food and alcoholic mixtures, 
administered to children in infancy, contribute 
to the same result. 

When the diet should be of the most bland and 
unirritating nature, how often have we seen nurses 
and mothers feeding the little sufferer with toddy in 
various forms, peppermint, and a great variety of 
the most heating articles! When the child has a 
pain in its stomach, it must have brandy toddy. 
Nothing is regarded as so efficient to remove nausea 
as peppermint and gin. When the child is restless 
and cries, paregoric, made of alcohol, spices, and 
opium, must be administered. Thus the nurse 
seems as if she were making an experiment, to see 
how much injury, moral, intellectual, and physical, 
she can inflict on the helpless being committed to 
her charge. 

11. The sensuality and carthliness of the 
community, is a fruitful occasion of inebriety, 

5* 



54 CAUSES OF INTEMPERANCE. 

Great multitudes live unduly for the body. Mul- 
titudes who are never drunk, place their chief hap- 
piness in pleasures of the table. How much of the 
intellect of this community is palsied — how much 
the expression of the countenance blotted out — how 
much of the spirit buried by unwise indulgence! It 
is the sensuality, the earthliness of those who give 
tone to public sentiment, which is chargeable with 
a vast amount of intemperance among the poor. 
How is the poor man to resist intemperance ? Only 
by a moral force, and energy of will, a principle of 
self-denial in the soul. And where is this taught 
him.? Alas ! the great inquiry which he h< 
among the better educated, is — What shall we eat 
and drink, and wherewithal shall we be clothed ? 
Unceasing struggles for outward earthly good, con- 
stitute the chief activity which he sees around him. 
Thus he is encouraged to seek enjoyment in intoxi- 
cating beverages. 

12. Auctioneers^ merchants, and others, hare 
often done mucJi to encourage intemperance, by 
furnishing alcoholic beverages to their cast, 
ers gratis, with a view to make them feel richer 
and more liberal. This is utterly wrong. 

A number of gentlemen met to consult upon the 
value of certain lots of land that were to be offered 
for sale. After due inquiry, they concluded unani- 
mously that the lots were not w r orth more than a 
certain sum, and that they would none of them bid 
more. The sale was opened, and no man bid higher 
than the sum which was named. The owner would 
not sell at that price, and stopped the sale. It being 



CAUSES OF INTEMPERANCE. 55 

cold, he invited them to go in and warm. While 
the fire was warming them without, he prepared 
some alcohol in a very palatable manner, to warm 
them within. He offered it gratis — and they drank 
freely. When he thought they were warm enough, 
he again opened the sale. One of those men felt so 
much richer, and the land appeared to be worth so 
much more, that he actually bid and gave for a lot 
four times as much as he or any of these men, when 
not poisoned, thought the land to be w r orth. 

Is it wise for a man to consent to be thus deceived 
and robbed of his money ? 



56 REMEDY FOR INTEMPERANCE. 



CHAPTER VI. 

REMEDY FOR INTEMPERANCE. 

How can the evils connected with the use of 
Alcohol be arrested] 

In reply to this question, I would say, there are 
two modes of action. To rescue men, we must act 
on them inwardly and outwardly. We must ei 
give them strength within to withstand the tempta- 
tions to intemperance, or we must remove these 
temptations from without. We must increase the 
power of n , or diminish the pressure which 

is to be resisted. The first of these modes is the 
most effectual for individual security. No man is 
secure from the blighting influence of this scour 
unless he has a moral force, a pure and strong prin- 
ciple within, which will resist every solicitation to 
improper indulgence. 

Religious principle in the soul, is th 
safeguard against the baneful influence of in- 
temperance. 

Christianity is a mighty power, before which this 
destroyer is to fall. It brings to bear the most pow- 
erful motives that can act on the human mind ; it 
speaks to the conscience in the name of the Almighty 
Judge ; it speaks to the heart in the most moving 
accents of love ; it proffers strength to the weak, 
and pardon to the guilty ; it reveals to men an im- 



REMEDY FOR INTEMPERANCE. 57 

mortal nature within, and an eternal state before 
them ; it awakens generous affections, and binds 
man by new ties to God and his race. We must 
secure to virtue and temperance, the power of con- 
viction. Nothing is sure but truth. No other foun- 
dation can sustain a permanent reform. The power 
of the Gospel on man's moral and intellectual nature 
— securing reform from conviction, and true repent- 
ance — is an influence that will be permanent and 
enduring. It is the true power to subdue sin every- 
where and in every form. In distant, heathen In- 
dia, it can break down the power of caste. In 
Africa, it will annihilate the traffic in human beings. 
In the isles of the sea, it changes fierce cannibals 
into mild and gentle beings, who are ready to sit at 
the feet of Christ to receive instruction. It will 
transform the savage warrior of the wilderness, into 
a peaceful husbandman, ready to render a tribute of 
praise to the Great Spirit. In civilized, enlightened 
lands, it has power to humble the blasphemer — re- 
form the drunkard — prostrate the infidel — melt the 
heart of the oppressor — break the chain of the slave 
— open the purse of the miser — make man ashamed 
of war and carnage, and fill all hearts with gratitude 
and love. 

What cares the reformed inebriate, when his ty- 
rant appetite comes upon him, and he is urged to 
partake of the poisonous beverage ; what regard has 
he then for his respectable standing in society, — 
pecuniary advantage, or family claims — or life, or 
death, or heaven, or hell ? These things influence 
him but little. If he has not the fear of God, and 



58 REMEDY FOR INTEMPERANCE. 

true principle within his soul ; if he has no hold by 
faith on the Redeemer ; there is great reason to fear 
that he will return again to his cups, — " like the 
dog to his vomit, and like the sow that was washed 
to her wallowing in the mire." 

2. Another means of arresting the progress 
of intemperance, is to diffuse intelligence, and 
give moral power and general improvement, to 
those portions of the community in which intem- 
perance finds its chief victims. 

In proportion as we awaken and invigorate men's 
faculties, we help them to rise above a brutal life ; 
we take them away from the power of sensual indul- 
gences, enlarge their foresight, give them the means 
of success in life, open to them sources of innocent 
pleasure, and prepare them to act well their part on 
the stage of lit"". 

3. Again, there must tic an effort on the part 
of various classes, and of different departments 
of the temperance cause, to awaken fresh interest 
in the work. 

The religious and secular press must again sound 
the alarm, and show that the enemy is coming in 
like a flood, and encourage to do battle against this 
common foe to humanity. 

There are, it is true, many papers in our land, 
which seem to have a correct view of their re- 
sponsibility, and deserve commendation for the high 
tone of moral purity which pervades them. But 
it is true of a portion of the press, that instead 
of looking to elevated principles, and aiming to 
guide public opinion into safe channels, it contents 



REMEDY FOR INTEMPERANCE. 59 

itself with echoing what it believes to be public 
opinion. Does it not now resemble the "bow light" 
of a ship, shifting with its course, more than the 
Polar Star, which guides toward the desired haven ? 

The ministers of our holy religion must again 
speak out in thunder tones, and come for the re- 
demption of our land from this terrible thraldom. 

Let those who were the pioneers in this great 
work, and who labored amid mighty difficulties to 
advance the temperance cause, be still courageous 
and uncompromising in their efforts. Let the zeal- 
ous and energetic Washingtonians labor on, raising 
up the fallen and degraded. Let the Sons of Tem- 
perance, the llechabites, and other beneficial socie- 
ties, be true to their pledges — adhering strictly to 
the great work of promoting the temperance cause — 
and not turn aside for separate interests, from their 
w r arfare against the common enemy. Let magis- 
trates and civil officers ever be ready to lend their 
influence and counsel, in plans to suppress intem- 
perance, and to help on the great work. 

4. We must have correct and just legislation, 
to aid in this great moral movement. 

By a decision of the Supreme Court of the United 
States, the constitutionality of temperance legislation 
has been settled. Various states of the Union have 
been incited, by true philanthropy, to repeal obnoxi- 
ous laws, and enact such as w T ould protect the tem- 
perate from the tyranny of rumsellers. Is the sale 
of intoxicating liquors a wicked business ? Does it 
corrupt our youth ? Does it make a wicked waste 
of an immense amount of our property? Does it 



60 REMEDY FOR INTEMPERANCE. 

destroy intellect, impair health, and produce disease 
and death ? Does it corrupt the morals, dry up the 
fountains of domestic happiness, produce indolence, 
wretchedness, and woe in the family circle ? Does 
it produce nine-tenths of all the crimes in this land ? 
Does it fill our almshouses with loathsome wretches, 
our jails with poor criminals, and supply our gibbets 
with victims? It does all this, and infinitely more. 
What government, then, can license or protect the 
traffic, without downright injustice, without absolute 
oppression? Every subject has a right to demand 
protection for his property, health, reputation, and 
life. Experience proves that all are in fearful peril 
in a land of grog-shops. The right of the LegU 
ture to act in the premises, rests on the broad prin- 
ciple of self-preservation — upon the same foundation 
on which the whole civil code rests. Legislators ! 
every consideration which impels you to pass laws 
to protect the health of our citizens, and abate the 
evils of the community, addresses itself with tenfold 
power to you, to aid in this work — when you reilect 
that the sale of ardent spirits not only introduces in- 
numerable diseases into the community, and destroys 
the health of our citizens, but that it is accompanied 
with this additional aggravation : that it tends to 
corrupt the public morals, to subvert the Christian 
religion, and to destroy our civil liberties! If the 
statutes which now shield this traffic were repealed, 
and this business w r ere to rest on its own merits, it 
would be indictable at Common Law. We could 
bring the dealer to justice, on the manifest tenden- 
cies of this traffic, as a wanton and felonious trifler 
with the peace and virtue of society. 



EXCUSES FOR THE TRAFFIC. 61 



EXCUSES REFUTFD. 

(1.) " You invade our liberties; we have a natu- 
ral right to deal and drink as we please." Now let 
us look at this objection. We are in the social state : 
we are in organized society : and we all have to 
yield many points of natural liberty, as the price of 
the protection and security of government. So long 
as you remain in the organized society of men, you 
do it by consenting to forego some so-called natural 
rights, which that society find it necessary to pro- 
hibit for the common good. While you remain in 
that society, you have no right to coin your own 
money, to fire your own dwelling, or to sell arsenic. 
All these are as truly natural rights, and quite as 
defensible, as the sale of alcohol. 

Many natural liberties are taken away by legal 
statute. Have you a right to practise theft ? No. 
But why ? It is at war with the social interests of 
society. It invades another's rights. But trifling is 
the evil, compared with this traffic, which encourages 
the commission of every crime. 

" In which is felt the fiercer blast 

Of the destroying Angel's breath ? 
Which binds its victim the more fast ? 

Which aims at him the deadlier death ? 
Will ye the felon fox restrain, 
And yet take off the tiger's chain ? 

You have your laws to punish the thief, the high- 
wayman, the murderer, the gambler, and the sabbath 
breaker : yet for selling this poison — which necessa- 

6 



62 EXCUSES FOR THE TRAFFIC. 

rily and universally leads to profaneness, sabbath- 
breaking, and gambling — which incites to the most 
of our murders, arsons, robberies, and thefts — you 
have fixed no penalty, but protect it by legal enact- 
ments. The community is alarmed if a few cases 
of hydrophobia are heard of. But to traffic in an 
article which is doing incalculably more mischief 
every year, than all mad animals have caused for 
the last fifty years — that is a right not to be invaded! 

(2.) But it is said further, this traffic is not con- 
demned in the Bible, and on this account it should 
not be restricted. The answer to this is very ob- 
vious. The article was then unknown. It was not 
invented till long after the Bible w r as complete 
Where, I may ask, is piracy, or bigamy, or kidnap- 
ping, or duelling directly prohibited in the Bible ? 
And yet will any man say, these are not immoral 
practices? Will he dare to engage in them, because 
they are not forbidden in technical language ? The 
truth is, the Bible has laid down great principles of 
conduct, which on all these subjects can be easily 
applied; which are applied; and which, under the 
guidance of equal honesty, may be as easily applied 
to this traffic. 

No man can pursue this business, without coming 
in conflict with the great principles of the Bible. 
The whole spirit of the Bible — and a thousand tei 
of the Bible are pointed against it. And every step 
the trafficker takes, he infringes on the spirit and 
bearing of some declaration of God. 

(3.) But says another, " If I should not sell, some- 
body else w r ould. Men will have it ; and why may 



EXCUSES FOR THE TRAFFIC. 63 

I not have the profits as well as another ?" So the 
highway robber and the murderer may say : " Some- 
body will commit the crime, and why may I not 
have the profits as well as another?" Because if 
you do you will be a robber or a murderer like the 
others. The money that you gain by doing wrong 
will be a curse to you. The wages of sin, as are 
those made by the sale of alcohol to be used as a 
beverage, will " at the last," like alcohol itself, 
"bite like a serpent, and sting like an adder." It 
is a business dangerous to those who pursue it, as 
well as to others. Within the last twenty years, in 
one county two hundred and ten persons have been 
licensed to sell intoxicating drinks. After a thorough 
investigation, it has been found that two hundred 
have not increased their property ; that a hundred 
and eighty have lost the whole or a part of the pro- 
perty 'with which they commenced business ; one 
hundred and fifty have become drunkards, and very 
many of their children. Thus the traffic destroys 
many who pursue it, as well as others. It is a busi- 
ness which the Lord hath cursed. 

(4.) But says another, Ci I have a license. I 
can point to the law that gives me this right." 
Suppose you can ; does that sanction and justify the 
wrong? Will that alter the effects of this business? 
Licensed selling will make drunkards, as well as 
unlicensed. A man bought a glass of liquor of one 
who was licensed ; he drank it, fell under the wheels 
of his wagon, and was crushed to death. Did that 
license assuage the anguish of his father, or his 
mother, his wife, or his children ? 



64 EXCUSES FOR THE TRAFFIC. 

(5.) I hear another say, — u I force no one to buy 
the article. It is a voluntary thing on the part of 
the buyer ; and if he chooses to purchase it, and 
injure himself, I am not responsible for the injury." 
But let us look at this. You sell it, knowing it will 
do mischief. It is sometimes as wicked to injure 
men through their own voluntary agency, as in any 
other way. Men with an appetite for drink, espe- 
cially w 7 hen intoxicated, are under a strange halluci- 
nation : they have for a season divested themselves 
of reason and self-control. They are to be pitied — 
not furnished with the means of self-destruction. 
And it is wicked in this view, moreover, that when 
you sell this poison to the drunkard, you inflict a 
wrong on the family — on the wife and children. If 
the article is prepared for the arts, why not make it 
in the form of pure alcohol, in which it is needed in 
the arts? Why color it, and drug it for the taste ? 

(G.) " I know it is wrong," says one, " to sell by 
the glass, to retail the article." In the language of 
Judge Daggett, of Connecticut, " Over every grog- 
shop ought to be written in great capitals — 'The 

WAY TO HELL, LEADING DOWN TO THE CHAMBERS OF 

death.' " " But I do not retail ; mine is a whole- 
sale establishment." But w T hat is the difference? 
The one deals out death by the hogshead ; the other 
by the gill. The one lays his beams in blood three 
stories high; the other but one. 

5. Again, the temperate must avoid as much 
as they consistently can places where intoxicat- 
ing drinks are offered for sale. 

It should be remembered that public meetings, 






ALCOHOL AT PUBLIC PLACES. 00 

and places of public resort, have led many into in- 
temperate habits. Military days, town meetings, 
vendues, raisings, balls, political meetings, agricul- 
tural fairs, cattle shows, public dinners-, celebrations 
of independence, winter sleighing parties, and law 
trials, are often so arranged as to present great 
temptations to intemperance. It is true, the customs 
of society are greatly changed with reference to the 
use of liquor at such times. Still there is much 
alcohol used on such occasions, even at the present 
day. Temperate men may be called, it is true, to 
attend some of the public gatherings named above. 
But when they do, let their motto be, " Touch not, 
taste not, handle not." 



66 OBJECTIONS TO TEMPERANCE. 

CHAPTER VII. 

OBJECTIONS TO THE TEMPERANCE CAUSE. 

In promoting the cause of Temperance. 
find various objections brought forward against 

total abstinence and signing the teetotal pled 

1. One will object on the ground that "Ab- 
stinence is not Temperance." Now to determine 
whether there is any force in this objection, we m 
first ascertain what temperance is. Many definitions 
of the term have been given, but the following seems 
to describe it accurately — "It is the proper and 
moderate use of whatever is adapted to the physical, 
intellectual, and moral nature of man ; and entire 
abstinence from whatever is injurious to the physical, 
intellectual, and moral nature of man." No one, I 
suppose, will deny the propriety of this definition. 
The simple question then before us, is — " Is it pro- 
per to drink moderately of alcoholic liquor as a 
beverage?" We have already seen that such use is 
improper We have shown its destructive influence 
upon man's whole nature. We have adduced the 
evidence of the ablest medical authorities to show 
that even the moderate use of alcoholic beverages is 
injurious to man, in e^ery aspect ; and therefore 
temperance, in reference to it, must be abstinence. 

2. But another objects on the ground that 
u Teetotalism is an extreme, and all cxtre?ncs 



OBJECTIONS TO TEMPERANCE. 67 

are bad." This is indeed a manifest absurdity. 
With as much propriety might one object to the 
enjoyment of perfect health, because it is an ex- 
treme ; and endeavor to modify it by moderate 
sickness. As well might one object to perfect hap- 
piness, perfect security of person, or perfect virtue — ■ 
and solicit a moderate degree of sorrow, a little fear, 
or some vice. Science and observation concur in 
attesting that alcoholic beverages are uniformly inju- 
rious. 

3. Others object to total abstinence, because 
they maintain that a drain after meals pro* 
motes digestion. This is a very erroneous position. 
Common observation might demonstrate this. But 
the question has been submitted to direct experiment 
by Dr. Beddoes ; and he found that the animals to 
which spirits had been given along with their food, 
had digested nearly one-half less, than other similar 
animals from which this stimulus had been withheld. 

Physicians, it is true, did once recommend a little 
brandy and water, or wine, to those who were dys- 
peptic. But the opinion of the ablest of them now 
is, that such tonics, in most cases of this sort, give 
only a transient and deceitful relief, and in fact tend 
to exhaust the invalid's scanty strength. 

4. But it is said again — "I am temperate 
now, and there is therefore no need of my joining a 
temperance society." Another says — "If I can't 
be temperate without signing the pledge, that will 
not help me." A third thinks it will be a reflection 
upon his past life to join a temperance society. Now 
all these objections originate in a wrong view of the 



68 OBJECTIONS TO TEMPERANCE. 

subject. It is not for your own sake that you should 
join in this work, but for the sake of the cause, and 
for the welfare of society. Do you ask how this can 
help the cause ? I need only point you to the glo- 
rious results of the temperance movement. What 
have men done by combining in this great reform ? 
They have imbodied more than two millions on the 
principle of total abstinence in the United States ; 
and more than fifteen millions in the world. They 
have thrown an influence over as many more, who 
practice on the same principle. Temperance organi- 
zations have waked up the nation to its danger; 
have carried an influence into the army and navy ; 
have raised to sobriety and virtue hundreds of thou- 
sands of degraded drunkards; have enlisted a host 
of able advocates. Their tracts are in circulation, 
their temperance periodicals, and their ad< 
A great mass of facts and stati rol- 

lected and spread out before the public. 

Do you ask then, " What is the benefit of my 
becoming identified with this movement?" If you 
join in good faith, you strengthen tin ; if you 

Stand aloof, you weaken it. Here then is a w;i\ 
do good. And what says the law and the testimoi 
" To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, 
to him it is sin." 

5. But says another objector — "/ plead for 
fellow men. It would he dangerous for some 
to abstain suddenly" Let experience be our 
teacher upon this subject. Says Dr. Mussey: "A 
wealthy farmer in Sullivan County, N. IT., had been 
in the habit of drinking spirits for a number of years, 



OBJECTIONS TO TEMPERANCE. 69 

and quite freely in haying season. Possessing a 
vigorous constitution, he attained the age of seventy- 
five years ; much broken down and decayed, how- 
ever, under occasional attacks of gout, which he 
called rheumatism. At this period he broke off sud- 
denly and wholly from the use of spirit ; and within 
two years — that is, at the age of seventy-seven — he 
was so much recruited, as to appear several years 
younger. He expressed himself in the most decided 
and energetic manner, w T hen remarking upon the 
effects in his own case of total abstinence from spi- 
rituous drinks : he had not only not been injured, but 
had been an unspeakable gainer by the change. 

Says the agent and keeper of the Penitentiary at 
Auburn, N. Y. — " During several years residence in 
that institution, I have never known an individual 
whose health has not been benefited by the total 
abstraction of spirit, and every other stimulant drink 
and narcotic from his diet." This testimony is very 
important, inasmuch as a large proportion of the 
whole number of convicts, when admitted to that 
establishment, are drinkers of alcoholic liquors, from 
tippling to beastly drunkenness. 

Joseph John Gurney, Esq., a member of the so- 
ciety of Friends, and a distinguished friend of suffer- 
ing humanity, declared as follows — " I am persuaded, 
from experience, that total abstinence from all intoxi- 
cating liquors is exceedingly beneficial to the bodily 
health of mankind. I was one of those, who, in a 
delicate state of health, believed it was scarcely 
possible to get along without the use of some strong 
drink in moderation. I took wine moderately ; but 



70 OBJECTIONS TO TEMPERANCE. 

being conscientiously persuaded that it was my duty 
to abstain from the use of these things, I did so — 
simply because I thought my example might possi- 
bly be beneficial to my friends, and fellow citizens, 
and fellow men. And after a trial of a year and a 
half, I am enabled to say, and to say with thankful- 
ness, that I enjoy much better health and spirits 
than I did before. I find every thing going on with 
me at a regular, comfortable trot. This I believe 
the proper and natural result of total abstinence from 
all intoxicating drinks." 

Dr. Miller, of Princeton Theological Seminary, 
says : " More than six years ago, when I was ap- 
proaching my sixtieth year — hearing so much said 
about the mischiefs of stimulating drinks — I deter- 
mined to go beyond those around me, and abstain 
not merely from ardent spirits, but make the experi- 
ment, for at least three months, what would be the 
effect of an immediate and entire abstinence from 
wine and all intoxicating beverages. Accordingly, 
I broke off at once ; and from that day to this fa 
not tasted wine, except at the sacramental table. I 
have also abstained during the same time from cider, 
beer, and every species of drink stronger than water. 
The experiment had not proceeded more than a sin- 
gle month, before I became satisfied that my total 
abstinence was not only distinctly, but very strik- 
ingly beneficial. My appetite was more uniform 
and healthful ; my digestion decidedly improved ; 
my strength increased ; my sleep more comfortable, 
and all my mental exercises more clear, pleasant, 
and successful." 



OBJECTIONS TO TEMPERANCE. 71 

These testimonies, confirmed by the experience 
of millions of teetotalers, prove that sudden total 
abstinence is not dangerous; but perfectly safe, and 
highly beneficial. 

6. But says another, U I do not like the idea of 
signing a jj ledge ; it looks mean spirited to sign 
a pledge that I will be temperate" But look at 
this matter. Almost every step in life is attended 
by a " pledge." The best men among us cannot 
have a month's credit without a pledge ; a man 
cannot take a wife, nor a wife a husband, without 
mutually pledging themselves. A business firm will 
not be satisfied with a simple promise to pay, unless 
the promiser gives his name in pledge. Now since 
pledges are so generally employed, in commerce, 
morals, and politics — and evidently to advantage, — 
why should they be objected to in this case ? There 
is great advantage in the pledge. Says a clergyman 
— " My object in joining the temperance society, 
was purely to assist in reclaiming the drunkard ; but 
I have found it much more easy to resist the impor- 
tunity of friends to drink, since I joined the society, 
than I did before." This is the experience of mul- 
titudes. The pledge strengthens the resolution to 
abstain. And further, it adds an interest to the prin- 
ciple espoused. It links together those who hold it 
in common, and thus strengthens the power of each. 

7. But says another, "Total abstinence. I think, 
is carrying the matter too far." " Do unto 
others as ye would that they should do unto you," 
is the eternal law. But suppose your own child, 
your brother, your sister, the wife of your bosom, 



72 OBJECTIONS TO TEMPERANCE. 

were in imminent danger from the example or 
temptation of others — would you be pleased with 
this ? No. Well the example of those who use 
this poison moderately, you admit has ruined multi- 
tudes. Can you then justify such by the golden 
rule — the eternal law ? Ah ! let the burning tide 
actually desolate your own family: and then answer. 



HISTORY OF THE TEMPERANCE REFORM. 73 



CHAPTER VIII. 

HISTORY OF THE TEMPERANCE REFORM. 

Intemperance, as we have seen, like an over- 
flowing scourge spread over the land and the world. 
About the year 1800, with a population of 7,000,000, 
the animal consumption of spirits in the United 
States was 33,365,559 gallons— besides 15,000,000 
gallons of wine and malt liquors ! 

A worthy physician, Dr. B. J. Clarke, of the town 
of Moreau in the state of New York, having sur- 
veyed the frightful ravages of this " all-pervading 
destroyer, 55 became deeply solicitous for the welfare 
of his country, and exclaimed to a worthy clergy- 
man — " We shall all become a nation of drunkards, 
unless something be done to arrest the progress of 
Intemperance." With a view to oppose this evil, 
Dr. Clarke, with the assistance of a few others, in 
April 1808, organized " The Temperate Society 
of Moreau and Northumberland," consisting at first 
of forty-three gentlemen. This appears to be the 
first society connected with the Temperance move- 
ment in this country. It held its meetings quarterly, 
and continued to exist until 1822. Its constitution 
was somewhat peculiar, and approximated towards 
teetotalism. 

The following are its fundamental rules :- — 

Art. 1. This Society shall be known by the name 



74 MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 

of " The Temperate Society of Moreau and North- 
umberland." 

Art. 4. No member shall drink rum, gin, whis- 
key, wine, or any distilled spirits, or compositions 
of the same, or any of them, except by advice of a 
physician, or in case of actual disease, (also except- 
ing at public dinners,) under the penalty of twenty- 
five cents — provided that this article shall not 
infringe on any religious rite. 

Sec. 2. No member shall be intoxicated, under 
penalty of fifty cents. 

Sec. 3. No member shall offer any of the above 
liquors to any person to drink thereof, under the 
penalty of twenty-five cents for each often 

Not long after this, the Rev. Lyman Beecher, D.D. 
lifted up his voice in thunder tones in the pulpit, to 
arouse his countrymen to a sense of the danger that 
threatened every thing valuable in the social, civil, 
and religious interests of the nation, from the rav; 
of this destroyer. The efforts of Beecher and his 
coadjutors, to roll back the desolating tide of drunk- 
enness, were not altogether unavailing. At the 
meeting of the General Association of Massachusetts, 
in 1811, a committee was appointed to organize a 
society, the object whereof was u to check the pro- 
gress of intemperance — viewed by the association 
as a growing evil." This society, styled the " Mas- 
sachusetts Society for the suppression of Intemper- 
ance," was organized on the 13th of February, 1813. 
Its influence, although considerable, was not suffi- 
cient to check very sensibly the growing evil. 

At this period, the annual consumption of ardent 



ANNUAL MORTALITY. 75 

spirits amounted to 60,000,000 of gallons, exclusive 
of wines and malt liquors. 

The effects of this frightful torrent of liquid fire 
upon the social affairs of the nation, were most ter- 
rific. Crime, pauperism, and insanity, increased in 
a fearful ratio. From sober calculations, made from 
the most reliable sources of information, it was ascer- 
tained that there were in the United States more 
than 300,000 drunkards, and that more than 30,000 
die annually a drunkard's death, and are covered 
over with a drunkard's infamy. The amount of 
mortality as just stated annually from intemperance, 
may seem to be incredibly large ; but it is confidently 
believed that this estimate fails far below the truth. 
There were at this time, 40,000 distilleries of ardent 
spirits in full operation in the United States : and 
can any man doubt that each of these fountains of 
death poisoned and destroyed more than one victim 
annually ? 

The question of absorbing interest now became — 
a What steps shall be taken to banish Intemper- 
ance £" 

For several years the subject had been brought 
before the public mind, and discussed to some 
extent. Dr, Benjamin Rush, M. D., of Philadelphia, 
brought the powers of his noble philanthropic mind 
to bear upon the effects of ardent spirits on the body 
and mind ; and published the results of his inquiry 
in 1804. Dr. Beecher preached his six able ser- 
mons in 1811, on the Nature, Signs, Causes, and 
Remedies of Intemperance, which roused the public 
mind. The Rev. Mr. Edwards, of Andover, Mass., 



76 CONVENTION AT ANDOVER. 

in 1814 preached a series of able sermons against 
intemperance. Thomas Herttell, of New York, took 
up the subject next, and discussed it with g. 
force and ability in a work on " The Causes of In- 
temperate Drinking, and the means by which it may 
be obviated," which was published in 1819. In 
1823, the Rev. Eliphalet Nott, D. D., published a 
volume of able and eloquent Sermons on Intern] 
ance, which in a still higher degree aroused the 
public attention. In 1S25, the question was still 
more generally discussed ; and towards the close 
this year, a meeting of benevolent persons was con- 
vened at Andover, Mass., for the purpose of forming 
an ''American Temperance Society." After praj 
consultation, and discussion, it was unanimously 
resolved, that, as anient spirits was the principal 
means of intemperance, its total abandonment 
necessary to carry out their object. In this con\ • 
tion were many thorough-going tempei < n ; 

for although the moderation principle was agreed to, 
it was nevertheless resolved, that abstinence lr 
all intoxicating liquors was essential to the complete 
extinction of the Evil. 

The year 1826 is distinguished as a new epoch 
in the history of the temperance movement in I 
country. The Rev. Calvin Chapin, of Connecticut, 
discussed the subject this year, in a series of able 
articles, in the Connecticut Observer. His object 
was to show that entire abstinence from alcoholic 
drinks, is the only infallible remedy for In ft 
pcrance. Of what avail is it for a man to abstain 
from one kind of alcoholic drink, if he take the 






THE AMERICAN TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 77 

same quantity of alcohol in wine, or cider ? It was 
to this point that Dr. Chapin directed his attention. 
He seemed to go to the root of the matter, and awa- 
kened inquiry all over the land. This point had 
hitherto been neglected in most temperance socie- 
ties. It was very common at this day to see persons 
who had signed the pledge, not to drink spirituous 
liquors, become intoxicated upon wine, beer, or 
cider. The temperance cause suffered immensely 
from this inconsistency. Still no harmonious and 
decisive action was taken among the societies, im- 
mediately, on this point. 

A numerous convention of the friends of Temper- 
ance assembled in the city of Boston on the 10th 
of January, 1826, to devise methods of prosecuting 
the work with still greater vigor. A committee was 
appointed to prepare a draft of a constitution for an 
American Temperance Society. On the 18th of 
February following, the Constitution was presented, 
and adopted ; and shortly after, an able address to 
the American people was prepared and extensively 
circulated. On the first of March following, the 
Rev. Dr. Hewitt commenced an agency for it, of 
twenty-two weeks. 

During this year (1826) a paper, styled the " Na- 
tional Philanthopist," was established in Boston. 
The American Temperance Society grew in favor 
with the people. In 1827, Dr. Edwards, of Mass., 
undertook to raise money in Boston, and other places, 
for the support of a general agent for the society. 
A fund of not less than eight thousand dollars was 
soon collected. 

or* 



78 dr. hewitt's successful agency. 

The Massachusetts and New Hampshire medical 
societies passed resolutions in favor of temperance, 
and expressed their decided convictions, that water 
was the only proper beverage for man* Various 
ecclesiastical bodies also passed strong resolutions 
against the use of distilled spirits. 

Dr. Hewitt, who had been appointed general 
agent of the American Temperance Society, pr 
cuted his work with distinguished ability and suco 
In the short space of twenty-two weeks, he t. 
the states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecti- 
cut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, 
addressing large assemblies, and enlisting multitu 
wherever he went. The same champion in the 
cans- was appointed, in L828, agent for the society 
for three years ; and in the course of twelve months 
he travelled nearly tour thousand miles, and delivered 
one hundred and twv 

At the end of this year, the American Temper- 
ance Society issued its first report, exhibiting 
other things the following results, viz. : tl 
perance soeicti- 9 In Maine, twenty-three in N 
Hampshire, seven in Vermont, thirty-nine in Ma 
chusetts, two in Rhode Island, thirty-three in Con- 
necticut, seventy-eight in New York, six in N 
Jersey, seven in Pennsylvania, one in Delaware, one 
in Maryland, five in Virginia, two in North Carolina, 
one in Kentucky, one in Ohio, two in Indiana, 
making a total of two hundred and twenty-two in 
the Union. 

During the year 1S28, it was ascertained that 
societies had been formed in the United States ; 



PUTNAM AND THE WOLF. 79 

30,000 men, for themselves and families, were 
pledged to abstinence from intoxicating liquors ; and 
a large reduction was effected in the consumption of 
ardent spirits, while several distilleries were shut up, 
and a number of ship owners sent their vessels to sea 
without the usual supplies of spirit. 

At the end of 1829, four hundred merchants had 
relinquished the traffic in liquor, fifty distilleries had 
closed, the number of societies had increased to one 
thousand, and their pledged members to one hun- 
dred thousand — of whom twelve hundred had been 
drunkards. 

In the year 1829, the New York State Temper- 
ance Society was established, which, through the 
spirited and energetic labors of Edward C. Delavan, 
Esq., became a noble ally in the great work. 

During this year the Rev. John Marsh delivered 
a stirring Address on Temperance, at Pomfret, Conn. 
He referred to a well-known incident in the life 
of General Putnam, who formerly resided in Pom- 
fret. He compared the warfare that was then raging 
against alcohol to the enterprise which Putnam un- 
dertook against the wolf, which resulted in the 
destruction of the monster. In this case, the old 
hero had the courage to enter the den, for the de- 
struction of the enemy. As he approached it, he 
saw the glaring eyeballs of the ferocious beast. The 
animal howled, rolled its eyes, snapped its teeth, 
and threatened him with instant death, when he 
levelled, fired at its head, and brought it forth dead 
to the view of his trembling and exulting neigh- 
bours. The orator exhorted his hearers to imitate 



80 GENERAL CASSIS ADDRESS. 

the courage and perseverance of the illustrious hero, 
and not to be baffled by any difficulty — but to per- 
severe till the enemy lay dead at their feet. The 
Address was published, and spread with great rapid- 
ity all over the land, awakening fresh interest. 

Mr. Marsh, as Corresponding Secretary of the 
American Temperance Union, has been for a num- 
ber of years ably and judiciously exerting a powerful 
influence, in prosecuting the Temperance reform. 

The Rev. Edward Hitchcock, during the year 
under review, delivered a powerful argument against 
the manufacture of anient spirits, at Am! 
which has been published, and extensively circu- 
lated. 

In the year 1S30, a prize of two hundred and 
fifty dollars was awarded to an Essay, b) Pi 
Stewart of Andover, Mass., upon tic 
it consistent for a professor of religion to I 
as an article of luxury or livings distilled //- 
quOTSy or to traffic in them /" 

About this time, Dr. Hosack, of X. Y., and Dr. 
Sewall, of Washington City, first made their app 
ance in the ranks of Temperance. 

General Lewis Cass delivered a timely address on 
the subject during this year, at Detroit, which ex- 
cited unusual interest. He declared that he had 
been all his life a cold water man ; and that in all 
the severe trials his constitution had undergone in 
youth, from the exposure and the severe weather he 
had encountered during the last war, he had remained 
strictly a total abstinence man. He declared his 
conviction, that the cold water man (ceteris paribus) 



SPIRITS NOT ALLOWED IN THE ARMY. 81 

can undergo more fatigue, and is liable to fewer dis- 
eases, in the proportion of one to a hundred, than 
the drinkers of ardent spirits. This testimony, from 
one so well qualified to judge, exerted an extensive 
influence. 

Several interesting occurrences took place during 
the year 1831. Early in the month of January, Dr. 
Edwards, the agent of the American Temperance 
Society, visited Washington, and addressed the 
members of Congress, in the Capitol, with happy 
results. The Secretaries of the Army and Navy ex- 
pressed a great desire to abolish the use of ardent 
spirits, by the troops and seamen, entirely ; but the 
way did not seem to be clear to admit of so decisive 
a step at this time. 

About this time, the Rev. Dr. Hewitt was de- 
spatched by the American Temperance Society to 
England, to be present at the organization of the 
British and Foreign Society for the Promotion of 
Temperance. This was a moral triumph, of which 
we had great reason to be proud. 

On the 16th of December, the largest meeting 
ever seen, in that building, took place in the Capitol 
at Washington. 

The year 1832, witnessed a movement on the part 
of the Secretary of War, which exerted a happy in- 
fluence on the Temperance cause. That officer 
declared in an official communication, that spirits 
should no longer constitute a portion of the Army 
rations — and directed the proper officers to see that 
it is not distributed in that shape. The Secretary 
of the Navy likewise discouraged the use of spirits 



82 



STATISTICS OF TEMPERA 5 



by the seamen. He directed coffee, tea, sugar, and 
money, to be offered in its place. 

Hon. Benjamin F. Butler published his statistics 
of intemperance during this year. The report of the 
American Temperance Society, in May of this year, 
showed that there were then in existence, in this 
country, ten thousand temperance societies, with 
five hundred thousand members. 






INDICATIONS OF PROGRESS. 83 

CHAPTER IX. 

INDICATIONS OF PROGRESS. 

The time now seemed drawing nigh, when an 
important change was to be effected in the organiza- 
tion of temperance societies. The old temperance 
societies had had their day, and had done a good 
work. But progress is the law in this great work. 
The way had been prepared for a purer dispensation 
— an onward step must be taken. Ministers had 
insisted, from the pulpit, that the temperance pledge 
was not sufficient of itself to restrain the march of 
intemperance. Public speakers had proclaimed the 
same truth in every village and hamlet. The idea 
had been thrown out in private conversations and 
discussions. The relapse of multitudes into their old 
habits proclaimed the same truth with still greater 
effect: and yet multitudes were alarmed at the idea 
of a bold, onward movement — of an effort to cut off 
indulgence in the milder stimulants of wine and 
cider. Fashion opposed a change. The rich could 
with difficulty be induced to forego the pleasure of 
partaking of their fine flavored wines, even if by so 
doing they could greatly advance the temperance 
cause. 

The following circumstance, among many others 
which might be named, shows the necessity of a 
change at the time above named : — A man friendly 



84 PECULIAR RESOLUTIONS. 

to the cause of temperance at that day, and who has 
since become a teetotaler, once called a meeting of 
the friends of temperance, under the old pledge. 
At the appointed hour, a large crowd was assem- 
bled — a majority of whom were drinking men. 
Before business commenced, some persons am 
the last named class moved that a certain individual, 
now a valuable member of society — but at that time 
a very intemperate man, be called to the chair. The 
motion was easily carried, the nominee, who alw 
had the reputation of an excellent hear', 
tremely popular among drinking men. As soon ftfl 
the chairman elect had taken hu body in 

the crowd offered a set of resolutions to the follow- 
ing effect : — 

" Whereas, the object of all drinking is to produce 
intoxication in the cheapest and most 
manner possible ; 

u And whereas, the substitution of the more costly 
drinks, such as wine, beer, 8lc., has a tendency 
increase the expense of the operation, without less- 
ening the disposition to drink ; 

" Therefore, Resolved, that we recommend to all 
true friends of temperance, to quit the i 
other intoxicating beverage, except whiskey, rum, 
gin, or brandy." 

These resolutions were carried by a large majority; 
and the gentleman who called the meeting left it, 
amid peals of laughter. 

A variety of things concured to convince the true 
friends of temperance, that " total abstinence from 
all alcoholic beverages, is the only remedy for in- 



NATIONAL TEMPERANCE CONVENTION. 85 

temperance." Under this persuasion, the friends of 
the cause resolved to make a simultaneous move- 
ment throughout the nation, prior to a great national 
convention. In pursuance of this determination, on 
the 26th day of February temperance meetings were 
held all over the Union. On the same day, and as 
a part of this movement, a Congressional Temper- 
ance Society was formed, including among its mem- 
bers some of the most distinguished men of the 
country. 

The national convention, pursuant to previous 
notice, met in the city of Philadelphia, on the 24lh 
day of May, 1833. Nineteen states and one terri- 
tory were represented — the whole number of dele- 
gates present amounting to four hundred and forty. 
The meeting of this convention exerted an important 
influence on the temperance cause. It resulted in 
the interchange of thought and opinions, between a 
great number of the most intelligent men in the 
nation. It brought out many new facts, and tended 
to diffuse much light on the subject. 

The most important resolution adopted by this 
convention, was one declaring the traffic in ardent 
spirits morally wrong. They also came to the 
conclusion, that an advance in the cause was de- 
manded ; and that it was expedient to adopt the 
total abstinence pledge as soon as possible. 

But it seems they had been anticipated, in refer- 
ence to this onward movement. A short time pre- 
vious to this meeting, Luther Jackson, Esq. of New 
York, published at his own expense the following 



86 L. JACKSON, ESQ., OF NEW YORK. 

pledge, which was afterwards adopted by the Ameri- 
can Temperance Society. 

" We whose names are hereunto annexed, be- 
lieving that the use of intoxicating liquors as a 
drink, is not only needless, but hurtful to the social, 
civil, and religious interests of men ; that they tend 
to form intemperate appetites and habits ; and that 
while they are continued, the evils of intemperance 
can never be done away — do therefore agree, that 
we will not use them, or traffic in them ; that we 
will not provide them as articles of entertainment, or 
for persons in our employment ; and that in nil suit- 
able ways we will discountenance the u hem 
in the community." 

Mr. Jackson also, with great ok to 

effect a reform in celebrating the festival of our na- 
tional independence ; and through his influence, the 
Eighth Ward Temperance Society, in the city of 
New York, held a grand festival on the 4th of July, 
on strictly temperance principles. R. M. Hart) 
Esq., an efficient friend of temperance an 

account of this meeting, and of Mr. J.' 
agency in it, in the following language. " The 
great novelty of the movement, though derided by 
many, attracted a great concourse of citizens, and 
the meeting went oil" with great eclat. The intro- 
duction of the abstinence pledge met with consider- 
able opposition ; but the doctrine, appealing to the 
common sense of men, gradually took root, and 
spread with encouraging rapidity. During that year, 
and the beginning of 1834, more than one thousand 



PROGRESS OF THE REFORM. 87 

names were obtained to it, including the signatures 
of fifteen physicians, resident in the Eighth Ward. 

On the 7th of June, 1834, a society was formed, 
styled " The Juvenile Branch of the Eighth Ward 
Temperance Society, on the principle of total absti- 
nence, as a drink, from all intoxicating liquors." 
This, it is believed, was the earliest society on that 
principle in the country. I claim, therefore, for Mr. 
Jackson the distinction of publishing the first total 
abstinence pledge, convening the first 4th of July 
temperance meeting, and of being instrumental in 
forming the first total abstinence society in America. 

The work continued to progress steadily, till, in 
1834, it was ascertained that upwards of eight thou- 
sand societies had been formed, consisting of more 
than one million five hundred thousand members, of 
whom ten thousand had been drunkards ; more than 
four thousand distilleries had been stopped ; and 
upwards of six thousand merchants had renounced 
the sale of ardent spirits, and many others of all kinds 
of intoxicating drinks. 

More than ten thousand vessels were afloat on the 
ocean, in which ardent spirits were not used ; and 
multitudes, of all ages, in all kinds of lawful busi- 
ness, and in every variety of condition, had found 
by experience that they were in all respects better 
without the use of it. Facts had proved that it was 
a nuisance, unspeakably injurious to mankind ; nu- 
merous medical associations had condemned the use 
of it, as a violation of the laws of life ; and various 
ecclesiastical bodies, of different denominations, em- 
bracing more than five thousand ministers of the 



88 PROGRESS OF THE REFORM. 

gospel, and more than six thousand christian church- 
es, had expressed it as their solemn and deliberate 
conviction, that the traffic in ardent spirits, to be 
used as a drink, is morally wrong ; and that it ought 
to be abandoned throughout the world. 

Notwithstanding the traffic had been branded as 
odious and criminal, yet there are some who wish it 
continued, and at the period referred to, asserted that 
the sale of it had not been diminished to any great 
extent. Mr. C, a large brandy merchant in N. Y., 
met an active friend of Temperance (in 1S34), and 
said to him — u Why are you publishing such 
counts about people giving up the use of spirits? 
There is no truth in them ; there is as much drank 
now as there ever was." " I have got," said Mr. 
T., " a complete answer to that, and one that will 
convince you, that what you have said is not true. 
You know Mr. F., a man famous for the accumula- 
tion of property, don't you ?" " Yes." " Well, I 
met him yesterday on this very spot; and he said to 
me, ' Mr. T., what are you doing — why do you pub- 
lish such accounts about ardent spirits?' I told him, 
to induce people not to drink it. ' Well,' said he, 
1 you are ruining my business. I used to sell forty 
thousand dollars worth of copper, for stills, to the 
people of Connecticut, in a year ; and now I don't 
sell five hundred dollars worth. You are ruining 
me.' And that, Mr. C, is the answer to what you 
have said." 

A diminution of .$39,500 worth of copper for stills, 
in a single state, in a year, does not look much like 
there being as much ardent spirits made as ever. 



SERMONS BY REV. A. BARNES. 89 

During the year 1834, Samuel Chipman, Esq., 
made a report of the poorhouses and jails in the 
state of New York, from his own personal visitation 
and investigation, which disclosed many facts of 
thrilling interest, and afforded a powerful argument 
in favor of the temperance cause. He ascertained, 
that more than three-fourths of the pauperism was 
occasioned by intemperance ; and that five out of 
six, of those committed on criminal charges, were 
intemperate. 

In April of this year, the Rev. Albert Barnes, of 
Philadelphia, preached two Sermons on Intemper- 
ance, which merited, as they have received, a wide 
circulation. One of these sermons demonstrated, by 
a masterly course of reasoning, the intrinsic unright- 
eousness and immorality of the traffic in ardent spi- 
rits ; and refuted triumphantly the objections brought 
against the position laid down. The other sermon 
was an exhibition of the causes of intemperance in 
cities and large towns. These sermons were pub- 
lished by the Pennsylvania Temperance Society; 
and were some of the heavy artillery employed in 
routing the enemy. The first named sermon has 
been republished by the American Tract Society, 
and been scattered all over the land. 

Two circumstances occurred a little subsequent to 
this time, which are intimately connected with the 
progress of the temperance cause, and deserve a 
distinct notice. The following, in the language of 
another, is an account of them. 



90 deacon giles' distillery. 



DEACON GILES 7 DISTILLERY. 

" The art of distilling was practiced with greater 
success in few places, than in the town of Salem, 
Massachusetts. It descended from father to son, 
with the regularity of an heir loom, and in many 
cases had been continued in families for generations. 
Sanctified by long custom, it was not regarded with 
that horror, which its nature seems to demand, and 
which it would undoubtedly have excited, had it 
been a new invention. The eon s were 

such as are always found to attend the prosecution 
of the rumsellers' trade all over the world. Drunk- 
enness, disease, poverty and death, were life in the 
land. The friends of temperance had long looked 
upon the e: of these distillei (ring 

evil, calling aloud for a remedy. But men of great 
respectability — even dignitaries of the church — v 
actively engaged in them. To undertake their sup- 
pression, was to incur a mass of prejudice and ill- 
will, to which few were disposed to subject them- 
selves. The wealth of the community was on the 
side of the rumsellers, and a large portion of it 
actually in their own hands ; for it was estimated 
that from four distilleries, in the immediate neigh- 
borhood, no less than six hundred thousand gallons 
issued annually, filling the pockets of its manufac- 
turers, and spreading poverty and death among those 
who bought and drank it. 

" The Rev. George B. Cheever, a young gentle- 
man of decided talent, and a very fearless disposi- 



DISTILLERY. 91 

tion, having but lately commenced his ministry in 
Salem, determined not to content himself with 
waging a distant w r ar with the monster, but to en- 
gage it in close and deadly combat, which should 
result either in its fall, or his own ruin. He accord- 
ingly prepared for the press, and shortly after pub- 
lished, in the Salem Landmark newspaper, an attack 
upon the distilleries, of a nature so singular, as to 
attract extraordinary attention. It was written in an 
allegorical style, and purported to be ' A True His- 
tory of Deacon Giles' Distillery.' The author com- 
mences by drawing a picture of Deacon Giles : a 
hard-hearted, money-loving rumseller, who inherited 
his distillery and his disposition from his father, to 
whom, also, both had been transmitted through a 
long line of rumsellers, reaching back almost to the 
day of the Pilgrim fathers. The other points by 
which the deacon was distinguished, were, his hav- 
ing had a relative drowned in one of his vats of 
liquid fire ; his having lost another by drunkenness; 
his working all day Sunday ; and selling Bibles in 
one corner of his establishment. He w T as treasurer 
to a Bible Society, and generally paid his workmen 
off in rum and Bibles. On a certain Saturday night 
his hands refused to work the next day, and the 
deacon was in a sad quandary. He was relieved, 
however, by the appearance of a number of wild, 
strange looking fellows, wdio volunteered to do his 
w T ork for nothing, provided they might be allowed 
to labor by night. The deacon closed the bargain, 
well pleased with the terms, and went to church the 
next day to hear a man preach the doctrine of the 



92 deacon giles' distillery. 

salvation of all men. In the meantime, his work- 
men, who were demons, carried on their operations 
at an astounding pace. All the materials were 
worked up in the space of two nights — Saturday, 
and that of the Sabbath. By a contrivance of their 
own, they wrote upon each barrel of the ' good 
creature,' certain labels, invisible at first, and which 
could only become perceptible after they were sold 
to the retailers, and mounted upon their destined 
stands. The deacon returned on Monday, and was 
highly delighted with the work that had been done. 
The whole array of rum casks was immediately sold 
off to the deputy rum venders. As each bai 
put upon its destined stand in the different 
ries, the labels blazed out in staring capitals. One 
was inscribed, c Epilepsy sold here ! inquire at Amos 
Giles' distillery;' another, * Cholera in collapse! in- 
quire at Amos Giles' distillery ;' a third, 'Insanity 
and Murder;' a fourth, c Dropsy and Rheumatism ;' 
a fifth, ' Delirium Tremens ;' while many bore as an 
inscription, a part of Robert Hall's famous definition, 
'Distilled Death and Liquid Damnation.' The 
direction for finding all these things was at ' Deacon 
Giles' Distillery.' Some of the 1; 
marked with texts of Scripture : for instance, < Who 
hath wo? inquire at Deacon Giles' Distillery.' — 
1 Who hath redness of eyes ? inquire at Deacon 
Giles' Distillery.' Others were inscribed, 'A potion 
from the lake of fire and brimstone : inquire at Dea- 
con Giles' Distillery.' ' Weeping and wailing and 
gnashing of teeth: inquire at Deacon Giles' Distil- 
lery.' 



DISTILLERY. 93 

" When these terrible inscriptions blazed out, in 
a 'still and awful red, 5 the rumsellers shifted the 
liquor into other hogsheads ; but immediately the 
same writing became visible on the new vessels. In 
a rage, they sent it all back, to a man, and the dea- 
con burnt the whole of it. It left a strong smell of 
brimstone behind. 

" A certain Deacon Stone, who was a distiller, 
sold Bibles at his distillery, had had a relation 
drowned in a vat, and a son who had been very 
intemperate, thought the cap fitted him so well that 
he determined to wear it. He caused Mr. Cheever 
to be indicted for a false, scandalous, indecent, and 
malicious libel on John Stone ; charging him with 
knowingly, wilfully, and designedly preparing, in 
league with evil spirits and demons, the means of 
pestilence and disease to the bodies, and condemna- 
tion and ruin to the souls, of his fellow beings. The 
trial came on, on the 24th of June, 1835, in the 
Court of Common Pleas, Essex county. The Hon. 
Solomon Strong (Judge) presided. The main object 
of the evidence, on the side of the commonwealth, 
was the establishment of the identity between Amos 
Giles and Deacon Stone, which was done by show- 
ing the incidents recorded above of the former ; the 
loss of his relation in the vat ; his having a drunken 
son ; being a member of a Bible Society, and selling 
Bibles in his distillery — were applicable also to the 
latter. Another strong point, to establish the iden- 
tity, was also insisted on : the writer represented 
the impression, which produced his dream, to have 
been made by a train of reflections consequent upon 



94 deacon giles' distillery. 

seeing frequently in the public prints, when notice 
was given of any thing, i Inquire at Amos Giles' 
distillery.' Such notices had frequently appeared in 
fact, the name John Stone being substituted for Amos 
Giles. In spite of able counsel, (the Hon. Rufus 
Choate and Hon. Peleg Sprague being both em- 
ployed by Mr. Cheever,) he was convicted, fined 
$1000, and sentenced to an imprisonment of one 
month's duration. The defendent, when called up 
for sentence, made an able defence — but it did no- 
thing to mitigate his punishment. 

" A fatal blow, however, had been struck at the 
distilling business. The appearance of the dream 
had created a tremendous excitement : the trial had 
excited universal attention. Every word of evi- 
dence was drunk in by a crowd so great, that the 
court-house could scarcely contain them. The pub- 
lic voice, at first decidedly against Mr. Cheever, be- 
came as decidedly in his favor, as, day after day, 
facts were elicited in evidence to prove the diaboli- 
cal nature of the rum-maker's traffic. The press 
caught up the echo, and spread it far and wide. Far 
from being considered an officious meddler in all 
with which he had no concern, Mr. Cheever began 
to be regarded as a martyr to truth. Far from in- 
juring the cause of temperance, as many ' moderate 
drinkers' affected to think he would, it was soon 
found that he had affixed a stigma to the trade of 
distilling, which nothing could erase. When men 
thought of enriching themselves by speculating on 
the vices of their neighbors, Deacon Giles' burning 
hogsheads rose up before them like the ghost of 



E. C. DELAVAN, AND THE ALBANY BREWERS. 95 

Banquo. Eight years after, in that very distillery, 
converted by a new cold-water proprietor into a saw- 
mill, a temperance tea-party was given to a crowd 
so large, that the like had never been seen in the 
town of Salem. So mighty, so irresistible is truth ; 
so certain is she to triumph at last over all the im- 
pediments which passion, prejudice, and interest 
combine to throw in her way." 



EDWARD C. DELAVAN, ESQ., AND THE ALBANY 
BREWERS. 

" The next circumstance to which we alluded, as 
giving a powerful impulse to the cause of truth, was 
the trial of Edward C. Delavan, Esq. The Tem- 
perance Society, on the old plan, had made great 
progress all over the country ; and in no place had 
its success been greater, than in the city of Albany. 

" The drinking community of that city was more 
decided in its disapprobation of the use of ardent 
spirits, perhaps, from the fact that the immense 
quantity of beer, ale, and other malt liquors, left their 
appetites nothing to regret from its absence. The 
manufacturers of these pernicious poisons were, in 
some instances, active and efficient members of the 
temperance societies, for the discouragement of the 
manufacture and sale of ardent spirits. Mr. Dela- 
van, at that time, and for some years previous, chair- 
man of the New York State Temperance Commit- 
tee, had been for a long time laboring to induce a 
general adoption of the 'total abstinence' pledge. 



96 EDWARD C. DELAVAN, ESQ., 

The substitution of malt liquors for ardent spirits, 
struck him then, as it does all now, as supremely 
and particularly ridiculous, on the part of men who 
really had the propagation of general sobriety at 
heart. Convinced that the evil could only be eradi- 
cated by striking at its root, he drew up and pub- 
lished, in the American Temperance Intelligencer, a 
statement calculated to disgust all who had ever 
been in the habit of drinking the malt liquors made 
in the city of Albany. This statement was widely 
circulated, and having at last found its way into one 
of the Albany dailies, excited the most lively in- 
dignation on the part of the brewers. Eight of them 
brought suit against him, laying their damages at 
three hundred thousand dollars, and he was held to 
bail in the enormous sum of forty thousand dollars. 
One only of these suits was ever tried, that of T, 
lor vs. Delavan, and that was decided in favor of 
the defendant; the rest were dismissed. Though 
the trial did not take place until five years after — 
viz. in 1S40 — yet the cause of action arising this 
year, it will be proper to state the nature of the alle- 
gations made by Mr. Delavan. 

" He stated and proved in open court, to tha satis- 
faction of a jury, afterwards, that the brewers were 
in the habit of drawing their water (in preference) 
from a pond into which were thrown dead dogs, 
dead hogs, dead cats, dead horses, and all the car- 
rion which was afforded by the city of Albany. This 
pond communicated likewise with a creek, into 
which all the blood and offal of an immense slaugh- 
ter-house were thrown, and which passed through 



AND THE ALBANY BREWERS. 97 

the sewer of a large asylum for orphan children. A 
graveyard on the side of a hill, the coffins of which 
were in many places sticking out of the ground, and 
which at certain seasons of the year emitted a most 
offensive smell, hung directly over the same creek ; 
and the rains which fell carried the soil, fat with the 
putrid relics of mortality, directly into it. The ap- 
pearance of the pond w T as of a sickly green color 
during the summer months ; and even after cold 
weather set in, its smell was so offensive, as to 
sicken those w r ho were engaged in drawing the 
water. These very circumstances, probably, com- 
municated some of its most, agreeable qualities to the 
malt-liquor manufactured out of the water, since it" 
is established, that the Thames water is no better 
than any other for the manufacture of the far-famed 
brown stout, above the point where the filth of the 
immense city is discharged into it. 

" These facts, in a form not quite so extended as 
they afterwards assumed on the trial, Mr. Delavan 
communicated to the public. It caused the gorge 
of many an honest beer-drinker to rise, and made 
many a worthy citizen relinquish the flagon, for the 
plenishing of which such abominations had been 
practiced. They assisted materially in impelling 
the minds of temperate men, to adopt the c total 
abstinence' pledge." 

In February, 1836, the New York State Temper- 
ance Society adopted the pledge of total abstinence 
from all intoxicating drinks as a beverage. 

A second national convention, numbering three 
9 



98 THE TRAFFIC SUPPRESSED. 

hundred and sixty-four delegates, met at the Sara- 
toga Springs in August. Nineteen states were 
represented at this convention ; and there was a 
considerable delegation from Canada. This con- 
vention reiterated the sentiment, now becoming 
general, that total abstinence is the only remedy. 
The example set by this influential body was fol- 
lowed by various state conventions. 

The first anniversary of the American Temperance 
Union was held in the city of New York, on the 
9th of May, 1837. Cheering reports were received 
from all parts of the land, in reference to the pro- 
gress of the cause. 

The Journal of the American Temperance Union 
commenced its career this year, in the city of Phila- 
delphia. It has since been transferred to the city 
of New York, and ranks high as a Temperance 
paper. 

A very important event of this year, was the or- 
ganization of the Marine Temperance Society of the 
city of New York, with two thousand one hundred 
and seventy members, of whom one hundred and 
forty were shipmasters. The principles of Temper- 
ance have taken firm root in the commercial and 
national marine, and the results have been most 
gratifying. Temperance seamen are trusted every- 
where, and can get a cargo when the drinkers of 
strong drink fail to find freights and business. 

Laws for the suppression of the traffic in ardent 
spirits were enacted by different legislatures this 
year. Tennessee passed a law of great severity 
against tippling in 1838. About the same time a 



PROPOSED HOSPITALS FOR INEBRIATES, 99 

law was passed in Mississippi, rendering it highly 
penal to sell less than one gallon of spirits at a time. 
The legislature of Massachusetts shortly after passed 
a lav/, prescribing a penalty for the sale of less than 
fifteen gallons at one time, which excited consider- 
able opposition, and was subsequently repealed. 

Several noble triumphs of the temperance cause 
occurred in the year 1839» The British steam- 
packets discarded the practice of furnishing liquors 
at their tables. The London New Foreign and 
British Temperance Society adopted the American 
total abstinence pledge. Old Faneuil Hall, the 
cradle of American freedom, witnessed the celebra- 
tion of the Fourth of July, on temperance principles, 
for the first time this year. 

This year also, commenced the great and memo- 
rable temperance reformation in Ireland, by Father 
Matthew. Dr. Woodward, superintendent of the 
Hospital for the Insane, in Worcester, Mass., pub- 
lished this year some able essays, on the cure of in- 
ebriates, and the expediency of establishing hospitals 
for their reception. The work excited much inter- 
est. Dr. Woodward argued, that " if there are 
thirty thousand drunkards in this country, and one- 
tenth part are susceptible of cure, it will afford suffi- 
cient motive immediately to commence the work. 
Doubtless one-half may be cured, and the habit be 
wholly removed, if proper means are persisted in for 
a sufficient length of time. If thirty thousand peo- 
ple were to have the small-pox in this country, in 
the next ten years, and it should be known that the 
disease would then for ever be at an end— would 



100 PROGRESS OF THE REFORM. 

the philanthropist fold up his arms, and be satis- 
fied that when these cases were cured the disease 
w r ould be extinct ? Or rather/would he not exert 
himself, to see that hospitals were provided, and 
every means secured that would lessen the severity 
and fatal tendency of the malady for these ten years? 
But no sober and considerate man can for a moment 
suppose that the evil of intemperance is to be re- 
moved from among us all. Shall we sit idle, and 
see the mighty evil, witness the ruin and wretched- 
ness it entails upon man, and not make an effort for 
its cure ?" 

The progress among the different temperance so- 
cieties, from the old to the teetotal pledge, continued 
to be steady and rapid, until it appeared that, in the 
state of New York, in 1838, the two thousand so- 
cieties, formed on the moderation principle in 1S37, 
had ceased to act, and eleven hundred and seventy- 
eight had sprung up on the teetotal principle — num- 
bering over one hundred and thirty-two thousand 
members. 

In 1840, the number of pledged teetotalers in the 
United States was two millions — at least fifteen thou- 
sand of whom had been drunkards. 



ORIGIN OF THE WASHINGTONIAN MOVEMENT. 101 



CHAPTER X. 

THE WASHINGTONIAN MOVEMENT— ITS ORI- 
GIN, PROGRESS, AND RESULTS, 

At the commencement of the year 1840, the tem- 
perance cause appears to have been in a languishing 
condition, when a new and blessed movement is 
commenced. — 



Tis night ;- 



A little band of haggard men is seen 

At the convivial board. Yet what doth mean 

That hesitating look, while one doth pass 

To each the sparkling, tempting, ruby glass ? 

Those haggard men had long the slavery known 

Of curs'd Intemperance ; and with sigh and groan 

Had spent whole years of hopeless wretchedness, 

Without a smile to cheer, a word to bless ! 

And hath that poisoned cup for them no charm, 

Who long have sought it as a soothing balm, 

That thus they hesitate, and no one sips 

The liquid fire, e'en while it *s at his lips ? 

Still hesitating ? See ! they — they have braved 

The Demon in his den ; they — they are saved ! 

Yes, they are saved ! their chains are broken. Now 

With trembling hand they frame the solemn vow — 

The second declaration — to proclaim 

O'er earth, Man no more glories in his shame!" 

Such is the poet's description of the Washing- 
tonian movement. The " little band of haggard 

9* 



102 PROGRESS AND RESULTS OF 

men," were six drunkards of the city of Baltimore, 
composing a club for social tippling. These six in- 
temperate men met at Chase's Tavern, in Liberty 
street, Baltimore, on Friday evening April 2d, 1840. 
The names of these persons, and their occupations, 
were as follows — viz. William K. Mitchell, tailor ; 
John T. Hoss, carpenter ; David Anderson, black- 
smith ; George Steers, wheelwright ; James McCur- 
ly, coachmaker ; Archibald Campbell, silverplater. 
As a distinguished speaker was to deliver a dis- 
course that evening on temperance, it was agreed, 
after some remarks, that a committee should be 
deputed to hear it, and bring back a report. The 
committee went, listened to the discourse, and re- 
turned to their comrades, fully convinced of the 
great importance of the subject, and of the folly of 
their habits. One of the committee remarked, that 
after all, Temperance was a very good thing. The 
landlord hearing the remark, commenced a tirade 
against temperance men, and denounced all temper- 
ance preachers as hypocrites, without a solitary 
exception. One of the six replied with some warmth 
— " Of course it is for your interest to cry them 
down, at any rate." This excited earnest del 
which resulted in confirming the six in their convic- 
tions of the evils of Intemperance ; and they there 
came to the determination to form themselves into a 
temperance society, to be called " The Washington 
Society." A pledge was written and signed ; and 
each one, from the want of speakers, determined to 
portray the evils from their own personal experience, 
which they would relate. William K. Mitchell was 



THE WASHINGTONIAN MOVEMENT. 103 

chosen president. Their pledge excluded all intoxi- 
cating drinks. 

" This movement, linking to itself without sullying 
it, the noblest name in American history, sent its 
restoring influences, as on magnetic wires, almost 
instantaneously through the land. It went abroad 
proclaiming deliverance to captives enslaved by Al- 
cohol. Its words were rude and homely, but they 
stirred the heart like the blast of trumpets." The 
reformed men feeling grateful for their own deliver- 
ance, resolved on doing their utmost to rescue others. 
With this view, they frequently held meetings, in 
which they told their experience ; to which they in- 
vited their old associates in drunkenness, as w T ell as 
others, and told them how they had been redeemed. 
These meetings soon excited general interest, and 
were attended by multitudes. Every one who w T as 
recovered, was encouraged to make his reform as 
widely known as had been his intemperance. 

Some of the most capable reformed men of Balti- 
more were invited to hold meetings, and " tell their 
experience," in other large cities. These efforts 
often produced astonishing effects. Societies on the 
same plan sprung up in various parts of the land ; 
and in the course of two years, the Washingtonians 
had obtained the pledges of nearly half a million of 
men, women, and children — that they would abstain 
from all intoxicating drinks. Thousands of spirit 
dealers have also, through their efforts, been induced 
to abandon the traffic ; and not a few have actually 
delivered up their stock of inebriating drinks to the 
committees of temperance societies — by whom, of 



104 PROGRESS AND RESULTS OF 

course, they have been severely dealt with. Great 
numbers of distillers have put out their fires, and 
instead of converting a great quantity of grain into 
a destructive poison, it has been applied to beneficial 
purposes. 

Some of the reformed men were found capable of 
delivering very acceptable and effective addresses , 
and their success in some cases was almost incredi- 
ble. In the spring of 1841, two of these men, 
Messrs. Pollard and Wright, were sent out by the 
Washingtonians of Baltimore on a temperance mis- 
sion, to the western part of New York. They w T ere 
instrumental in reclaiming many drunkards, and in 
obtaining a large number of signers to the pledge. 
In the states of New York, New Jersey, and Dela- 
ware, they obtained thirty-four thousand signatures 
to the pledge, one-fifth of whom were inebriates, 
supposed to be irreclaimable. The whole land was 
aroused by these efforts of the reformed men. The 
New England states, the Middle and Southern 
states, and the great valley of the Mississippi, wi 
all agitated by this benevolent movement. The re- 
sults in our great cities were surprising. In Balti- 
more, the parent society, at its first anniversary, 
numbered four thousand six hundred. In Boston, 
the number of reformed drunkards in the Washington 
Society was estimated at six thousand. In Mobile, 
two thousand signed the pledge ; and thrice that 
number in New Orleans — a great proportion of them 
being drunkards. 

The spectacle of so many inebriates, endeavoring 
to rise above their degradation, excited everywhere 



THE WASHINGTONIAN MOVEMENT. 105 

lively interest and sympathy. All seemed disposed 
to assist them in rising to respectability and comfort- 
able circumstances. Pecuniary assistance, food and 
clothing, were often afforded to those rescued from 
the grasp of the tyrant Alcohol : they were directed 
to suitable employment, — were taken by the hand, 
and encouraged to persevere in a course of sobriety, 
virtue, and industry. 

This revolution reached even the capitol of our 
nation, and our Congress, and other legislative bodies. 
A congressional temperance society was formed, and 
many joined, who had been either tipplers or drunk- 
ards. Among the members of the House of Repre- 
sentatives who joined, was the Hon. T. F. Marshall, 
who became distinguished as a temperance lecturer. 
More than eighty members of Congress united with 
the society at its organization, by signing the total 
abstinence pledge. At a meeting of this society, the 
Hon. T. F. Marshall made the following powerful 
appeal : — 

" Let me here, sir, put a case for the consideration 
of our colleagues in Congress. Let me suppose for 
a moment that the condition of the world were 
changed ; that alcohol was but now discovered ; 
that it had not yet commenced that career of ravage 
which has marked its course and progress. Let me 
further suppose that the Congress of the United States 
— the representation of the people of this great em- 
pire — the sober likeness of a sober nation in the case 
imagined — were just now apprised of the discovery 
that some great teacher, who had penetrated the 
qualities and effects of this substance, and its future 






106 HON. 

possible bearing upon the fortunes of the human 
race, should here this night present, for the first time, 
before the mental vision in long and appalling per- 
spective, all the consequences upon this people 
which have in fact followed its use ; that he should 
fully satisfy every man in this assembly that, poison- 
ous as it is, and ruinous as its effects must be, this 
hitherto unknown evil was approaching our shores — 
that the only antidote was abstinence from the first 
contact: and that, if we once ventured to taste, no- 
thing could arrest its progress, until it had wrought 
(hat entire mass of wretchedness which he had, in 
living colors, pictured to our view. And then let 
us suppose that the proposition were made to Con- 
gress, not as a cure, but as a measure of prevention 
— ns anticipating the commencement of an illimitable 
evil — as sucking to guard and preserve our country- 
men in thai glorious and happy state in which they 
would be were intoxicating drink unknown — a sober 
nation — a republican empire containing seventeen 
millions of people, free, sober, healthy, and, so far 
as this prolific parent of miseries was concerned, 
happy! — all the disease, all the misery, all the long 
catalogue of crimes which have sprung from drunk- 
enness, banished — no, not banished, but unborn, 
unknow T n, unheard of: — Suppose, I say, that with 
this object in view r , an appeal should be made to 
these members of Congress to come forward, each 
in his place, and, as an example to those who had 
commissioned them — to those whose image it was 
their duty to reflect — to whom they should be as a 
mirror — and whose virtue and happines it should be 



hon. t. f. Marshall's appeal. 107 

their pride to guard — a proposition were made to 
take a solemn public pledge that they never would 
stain their lips with the polluting contact of a poison 
"which must destroy their countrymen : I ask, sir, 
who would pause ? Who would refuse ? Who 
w r ould reject a pledge, the impassible barrier against 
such an inundation of misery ? I would not — I am 
sure I would not. So far from considering such a 
pledge as the surrender of my freedom of action, I 
should exult in the deed, as one by which I had 
secured my own, and preserved the liberties of my 
country. The friends of the temperance cause, how- 
ever, unhappily, are not in the condition I have 
supposed. The demon has not only approached, 
but has been welcomed to our shores. He has al- 
ready wrought among us an amount of mischief and 
misery, which I am wholly incompetent to describe. 
It is our object to arrest and expel what we cannot 
now prevent. We seek to secure — in aid of the 
most glorious moral and social revolution of which 
the world has any record, save only that which was 
effected by the introduction of Christianity — to enlist 
in this cause, the countenance and support, and to 
rally around it all the dignity and influence, which 
necessarily attach to the movements of those con- 
nected with the government." 

In 1831, the quantity of ardent spirits consumed 
in the United States was 72,000,000 gallons, by 
12,000,000 of people ; being on an average, six 
gallons to every man, woman, and child ; besides 
an immense amount of wine, cider, and beer. But 
such had been the progress of the temperance reform, 






108 STATISTICS OF TEMPERANCE. 

that in 1840, with 17,000,000 of people, the whole 
amount of distilled spirits consumed was 43,000,000 
of gallons : not one half the quantity for each person 
in the nation as was consumed in 1831. 

In 1810, with a population of 7,000,000, the 
number of distilleries at work was 40,000 ; in 1840 
it was 10,306; in 1S46 it was reduced to about 
5,000. In 1825, there were in operation in the state 
of New York, 1149 distilleries; by 1840, they were 
reduced to 200. In one section of Pennsyh aiiia, 
there were 1500 distilleries at work in 1815; in 
1840, there were but about twenty. 

These statistics need no comment : they strikingly 
evince the great moral influence connected with the 
temperance enterprise. 

In some localities the decrease in the consumption 
of spirits has been wonderful. For example, in the 
town of Livingston, New York, where formerly 
ninety hogsheads of rum and whiskey were annually 
sold, there were only ninety-four gallons dispoi 
of in 1844. The reduction in the number of ho:; 
for the sale of the poison, also, remarkably shows 
the power of the temperance cause. Thus in Balti- 
more, in the beginning of 1841, there were seven 
hundred licensed grog-shops ; in the following year 
they had been reduced to fifty-six. In Providence, 
Rhode Island, in 1828 there were two hundred and 
nine licensed grog-shops ; in 1844, the number was 
only forty-one. In Northampton, and many other 
considerable towns of Massachusetts, there is not a 
single licensed grog-shop. 



MARPLE AND HAVERFORD SOCIETY. 109 



DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 

The Temperance Society of Marple and Haverford, 
in Delaware County, deserves honorable mention. 
By the energetic exertions of the friends of temper- 
ance in this community, an astonishing reduction in 
the consumption of spirits, and a great revolution in 
the habits of society, have been effected. Rum- 
selling has been crippled, and made a poor business. 
Without disparaging others, I may mention the names 
of Adam C. Eckfeldt, William B. Lindsay, and John 
F. Taylor, Esqs., as efficient members of the aforesaid 
society. A great revolution has also been effected 
in Darby, Upper Darby, and Ridley townships, in 
this county ; although in some neighborhoods of 
these townships the enemy is yet strongly entrenched. 
But a wonderful change has, on the whole, been 
effected. The writer's wife, then Miss Catharine 
W. Knowles, and her sisters, w T ere the first movers 
in the temperance cause in this region.* George G. 
Knowles, Esq., has also made great exertions to 
promote this great reform. I may also mention the 
names of John P. Crozer, S. M. Lieper, Paul B. 

* One of the earliest temperance societies in Delaware County 
was organized in Darby in 1818. The first president of this 
society was Haliday Jackson. The principal object of this so- 
ciety was to check and discourage the sale of ardent spirits. 
The most prominent and active members of this association 
belonged to the society of Friends. 

A society was organized at a later date in this place, of which 
Y. S. Walter, Esq., was the first president, and C. Ash, M. D., 
secretary. 

10 



110 SONS OF TEMPERANCE IN DELAWARE CO. 

Carter, and John F. Yanleer, Esqs., as gentlemen 
who have made great sacrifices to promote the cause 
in Delaware county; and they have, doubtless, been 
rewarded by the noble triumphs which have been 
secured. 

SONS OF TEMPERANCE IN" DELAWARE COUNTY, 

The Order of the Sons of Temperance has been remarkably 
prosperous in Delaware Co. and vicinity. Eleven Divisions have 
been organ ized in various parts of the county, having l mem- 
bership of nearly one thousand; many of which have been enter- 
prising and efficient in promoting the temperance reform. Some 
of these have erected commodious and tasteful halls, where their 

weekly meetings arc Ik Id. Cold Spring Division. | lo- 

cated at Darby, and has among its members many devoted fri 

of temperance, who have made untiring exertions their 

Suffering fellow nun from the chains of the t -hoi. 

Among others who have done nobly in this Division,] may 

name John V. Yanlrcr, David Eagee, James Shilling 

Thomas Bharpe, and Georgi Gr, Knowles. These and otl 
practical business men, have mingled with th 

and plucked many SI OUt of the lire. 

Standard Division, at Chester, was the first organized in Del. 
Co., and has exerted a healthful and fostering care over the other 
Divisions in the county. 






TEMPERANCE IN IRELAND. Ill 



CHAPTER XL 

THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE TEMPER- 
ANCE CAUSE IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE 
WORLD. 

IRELAND. 

Look at Ireland. Who has not felt deeply for 
poor, oppressed, suffering, degraded Ireland ? Ever 
restless under oppression, but never prepared for 
liberty : always galling beneath the yoke, but never 
able to throw it off: with all her vitals on fire, and 
the poison of alcohol in all her veins : she had be- 
come the reproach of the world. 

But, thank God ! oppressed Ireland is being re- 
deemed from the tyranny of Alcohol. A mighty 
wave of moral revolution is rolling over Ireland. 
Theobald Matthew, an obscure Franciscan friar, 
who was but little known beyond the limits of his 
own parish, with a few associates in the city of Cork, 
in 1838, commenced their benevolent movements 
among Erin's wearied sons and daughters. A little 
band of teetotalers constituted the germ of a mighty 
moral revolution. Within a few weeks, 76,000 at 
Limerick, 80,000 at Dublin, 50,000 at Gort, 12,000 
at Tullow, and 50,000 at Wexford, received the so- 
lemn pledge of total abstinence. More than 6,000,000 
of the population have rallied around the standard 



112 TEMPERANCE IN IRELAND. 

of temperance; and the warm-hearted Irishman, it is 
found, adheres to his pledge with a pertinacity un- 
known in any other part of the world. From careful 
calculations, founded upon extensive inquiry, it has 
been estimated that not more than one in five hun- 
dred has violated his pledge. This will give 12,000 
backsliders out of the 6,000,000, and there will con- 
sequently remain still 5,9S8,000 teetotalers in that 
country: and supposing the population to be eight 
millions and a quarter, there are only 2,262,000 un- 
pledged. The great work commenced at the south, 
and has gone on from Cape Clear to Belfast and 
Londonderry. Every part of the Island was reached 
and shaken by its power. The bands of unfortu/ 
Ireland are now becoming like tow. Her SOUS fa 
risen up to a8Serl their rights, and demand their 
liberty. The dawn of a better day is bursting upon 
her. The morning star of her political salva' 
has ascended the horizon. The flag of Freedom 
must soon wave its folds in her clear sky — and her 
ransomed children strike up the lofty song of 1 
of her sweetest bards — 

u Erin, O Erin ! thy winter is past — 
The rose that lived through thee has blossomed at last." 



ENGLAND. 

The cause is onward in England. — Here the 
400,000 teetotalers, of 1838, have increased to at 
least 1,200,000, including the Principality. The 
charge, that temperance leads to infidelity, has been 



TEMPERANCE IN ENGLAND. 113 

promptly rebutted. Sixty-three ministers of the 
highest respectability have testified, that where it 
prevailed, there vice and crime have diminished : 
the sabbath is better observed, the house of God 
more frequented, and more souls converted. 



PARLIAMENTARY REPORT. 

In the session of 1834-5, a committee of Parlia- 
ment was appointed, on motion of James Silk Buck- 
ingham, Esq., to inquire into the extent, causes^and 
consequences of intemperance ; and to ascertain whe- 
ther any legislative measures could be taken to pre- 
vent the continuance and spread of such a dreadful 
evil. This able committee was in session more 
than twenty days, and obtained answers from differ- 
ent persons brought before them, to upwards of four 
thousand questions. A lengthy report, consisting of 
six hundred octavo pages, was the result of this in- 
vestigation. It was represented that the cause had 
progressed rapidly that year in England. It had 
reached the two extreme classes — the very rich, and 
the very poor: whereas, before, it had been confined 
to the middle classes. 

The information with which this report abounds, 
was drawn from coroners, overseers of the poor, 
parish officers, and the whole class of persons to 
whose hands the law has entrusted the prevention 
or punishment of crime, the security of prisoners, 
the care of paupers, and the preservation of the 
peace and order of society in general. They came 
10* 



114 MR. 

to the deliberate conclusion, that nine-tenths of the 
crime committed, with a like proportion of the pov- 
erty and misery which daily came under their obser- 
vation, were to be traced to intemperance. 

Mr. Buckingham stands next to Father Mar 
among the efficient friends of Temperance in the 
Old World. 

As Mr. B. had been a great traveller, he was able 
from personal experience, and the strong light of 
contrast, to describe the effects of intoxicating drinks 
in a physical, as well as national point of view. In 
an address at Liverpool, lie stated that in his travels 
both in the Bast and the West, in every kind 
ther, wet and dry, hot and cold, he had m< 
rived the slightest benefit from the use of ard 
spirits. lie had travelled through Egypt, Palestine, 
Mesopotamia, and Arabia; had resided si S in 

India, and had passed backwards and forwards on 
two journeys by land to that country. In all he I 
travelled thirty thousand miles at least by land ; had 
visited the cities of Cairo, Damascus, Aleppo, Ispa- 
han, &c, and had seen upwards of three millions of 
people. Of course he had opportunities to witness 
the different habits of men ; and he could say, that 
he had never known an instance in which any hu- 
man being was benefited, physically or morally, by 
the habitual use of intoxicating drinks of any descrip- 
tion. Nor had he known it in use among any peo- 
ple, to whom it was not detrimental, in exact pro- 
portion to the quantity used. The finest race of men 
he had ever seen, was a tribe residing on the Hima- 
laya mountains, in India. They came down to Cal- 



TEMPERANCE IN SCOTLAND. 115 

cutta, as athletse, to show their skill in wrestling, 

boxing, throwing the quoit, and other games of 
strength. They were pitted against the strongest 
grenadiers and sailors that could be found ; and in 
general, one of them was more than a match for 
three of their European adversaries thus selected. 
These men had never tasted any thing stronger than 
milk or water, from their youth upwards. He had 
himself traveled from Diarbekir to Bagdad (eight 
hundred miles) on horseback, in ten days, when the 
thermometer was 100~ at sunrise, and 105 3 in the 
evening — drinking nothing but water, without in- 

jury- 

SCOTLAND. 

In Scotland the cause is in a flourishing i 

d it ion. — It is estimated that there are upwards of 
160,000 pledged teetotalers in Scotland. The con- 
sumption of spirits has here fallen from 6,620,326 
gallons, which paid duty in the year 1S36, to 
5,922,953 gallons, in 1845. Besides the i: Y 
Scottish Union," originated in 1333, and extei 
circulating a monthly periodical, ( u The Scot 
Temperance Journal,") there is an active and useful 
association, entitled " The Scottish Temperance 
League," established early in 1845. The object of 
this association is to unite the whole temperance 
body of Scotland in one common league — 
strengthen the cause by a concentration of means 
and efforts — and to stimulate local societies to in- 
creased exertion. It has a monthly periodical of 



116 FRANCE. 

large circulation, which has already accomplished 
incalculable good. 

The report of the late General Assembly of the 
Scotch Free Church, on the state of religion, has 
most pointedly directed attention to intemperance — 
charging the ministers to simultaneously preach on 
the subject on the first sabbath in December ; or 
failing in this, on the earliest convenient day there- 
after. 



FRANCE. 

France — beautiful France! which lias just bunt 
into life as a republic — consuming her 700,000,000 
of gallons of wine annually, and large quantities of 
other liquors — needs a temperance reformation. Ten 

years ago, Count Mole, then Minister for ! 
Affairs, sent to the committee of the Americ; 
perance Union for a complete account of the tem] 
ance reform, that it might be introduced into Fran 
It was promptly sent ; but nothing w . Louis 

Philippe preferred repairing palaces to men. The 
new provisional government say their object is to 
repair men ; and perhaps this is just the time to pour 
in temperance tracts and publications, and give an 
impulse there to this great movement. Without 
temperance, she can never be a free and permanent 
republic. 



TEMPERANCE IN SWEDEN AND NORWAY. 117 



SWEDEN AND NORWAY. 

In Sweden and Norway ', in 1846, there were 
four hundred and sixty temperance societies, 
embracing nearly one hundred and Jive thou- 
sand members. — A Temperance Convention was 
held in the city of Stockholm, some time since, 
which sat three days, and was attended by two hun- 
dred and thirty delegates from different parts of Swe- 
den and Norway ; two from Germany, and four from 
America. The king and queen regularly attended 
the whole of the proceedings, and evinced much 
interest in the cause. The late king, Bernadotte, 
was a pledged member. His son, the present king, 
Oscar II., is the same ; as is also the Prince Royal. 

In Norway, where the first temperance society 
was established in 1844, and w T here drunkenness 
was on the increase, the government has appointed 
four travelling missionaries, to advocate the principle 
and form temperance societies. 

According to the governmental returns in 1842, 
in Sweden, the number of distilleries had been re- 
duced from 160,000 to 120,000. A system of dis- 
tillation in small quantities pervades the whole coun- 
try, and rests on the perverted idea, prevalent in 
almost every farmer's arrangements, that the refuse 
of the still is indispensable for his dairy ; and this 
view, more than almost any thing else, continues the 
use of brandy in many parts of that country. In 
order to counteract this opinion, a little tract has been 
prepared, demonstrating the utter falsity of the idea, 



118 TEMPERANCE IN GERMANY. 

and showing that a loss is sustained by not substi- 
tuting other food for cattle instead of the spirit- wash, 
the dregs of the still. Five thousand copies of this 
tract have been printed and put in circulation. 

The laws relating to drunkenness are exceedingly 
severe in Sweden. For the first instance of intoxi- 
cation, a man has to pay a fine of three dollars ; for 
the second, six dollars; for the third, nine dollars, 
besides losing his right to vote — >and the Sunday fol- 
lowing he is fastened to a post near the church door. 
For the fifth ofTence, he is confined in the peniten- 
tiary six months ; for the sixth ofTence, twelve 
months. The laws on this subject are read once 
every year from the pulpit. 



GERMANY. 

In Germany the movement is extending in some 
regions with great success. The Rev. Mr. Seling, 
of Osnabriick is advocating the principle with great 
zeal, and has enrolled seventy thousand persons in 
the different temperance societies in two 
There are fourteen hundred and twenty-six temper- 
ance societies in Germany, and 1,019,093 members 
enrolled. 

In Upper Silesia, (Prussian Poland,) strenuous 
efforts are being made to extend this cause. On 
account of its intemperance, it has been styled the 
"Ireland of Germany ;" but, happily, it gives pro- 
mise of meriting the title, from its adoption of Irish 
temperance. It has found its Father Matthew, in 



TEMPERANCE IN THE EAST INDIES. 119 

the person of the Rev. Stephen Rezazawski, by 
whose exertion, chiefly, three hundred thousand 
grown up persons have been pledged to temperance. 
In Holland, Prussia : and Russia, temperance so- 
cieties are flourishing, and are making revolutions in 
character, which will prepare the people to be their 
own governors. 

EAST INDIES. 

The principle has made decided progress in 
the East Indies. — It is estimated that there are 
there five thousand teetotalers, chiefly European, and 
many of them British soldiers. The venerable Arch- 
deacon Jeffreys edits the " Bombay Temperance 
Advocate," a valuable paper, and has rendered im- 
portant aid to the cause in that part of the world. 

From India, teetotalism has been carried into 
China, along with British troops; and into Siam, 
by an American soldier of Christ — a pioneer of the 
Gospel. 

AFRICA. 

In Africa, the good seed has been sown. — At 
the Cape of Good Hope, the principle is zealously 
advocated, and multitudes have signed the pledge. 
" We have temperance societies at each of our mis- 
sionary stations," says a person writing from Africa ; 
" and I believe there are very few of our people who 
do not conform to their rules. At Kat River there 
are fourteen hundred true teetotalers. At Liberia, 
one-fifth of the whole population are members of 



120 TEMPERANCE IN POLYNESIA. 

the temperance society. The governor of this colony 
advocates thoroughgoing temperance, as will be 
seen from the following extract from his message to 
the Legislature of the colony, under date Jan. 5th, 
1846. He says: — "Permit me, gentlemen, to re- 
commend to your consideration the propriety of 
increasing the restriction imposed on dealers in spi- 
rituous liquors. I am decidedly of opinion, that tip- 
pling shops in any community are public nuisances, 
and should be deemed so by law ; and the sooner 
Liberia can lid herself of them, the better.'" 

NEW SOUTH WALES. 

In New South Wales, we hear encouraging re- 
ports. A neat temperance paper is published at 
Sydney, New South Wales, and is an able advocate 
of the cause. There were two years ago 10,000 
pledged members. The population of the colony 
was 195,000; consequently every twentieth person 
was a teetotaler. 

POLYNESIA. 

In Polynesia, the cause of temperance was 
introduced at an early period. The missionaries 
here made vigorous efforts to resist the ravages of 
intemperance. Such w T as the effect of their efforts, 
that in Tahiti intoxicating liquors were forbidden by 
law from being imported, and no mercantile business 
whatever was transacted with any ship that carried 
them as an article of trade. This enactment was 
made at the suggestion of the Queen. When frani- 



TEMPERANCE IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 121 

ing a tariff, her government requested to know her 
will respecting the extent of duty to be imposed on 
intoxicating drinks. The Queen replied, " Let the 
principles contained in the New Testament be 
the foundation of all your proceedings " They 
did so ; and immediately enacted a law against tra- 
ding with any vessel that brought ardent spirits. 
This was almost a prohibitory statute ; for rum was 
almost the only intoxicating liquor in use. The in- 
vasion of the French, however, has produced appall- 
ing havoc. 

SANDWICH ISLANDS. 

In the Sandwich Islands, the temperance principle 
has made great, progress. It has been patronized by 
the King and chiefs ; and the sale of alcoholic beve- 
rages has been made a crime in the eye of the law. 
Two interesting temperance periodicals are published 
in the Sandwich Islands. 

The following is the first pledge of the Sandwich 
Islanders : — 

" 1st. Not we to drink rum for pleasure ; 

2d. Not we to buy for property ; 

3d. Not we to make rum ; 

4th. Not we to give drink of rum to relatives, 
neighbours, or strangers, without the direction of the 
doctor not-drinking ; 

5th. Not we to give rum to a company during 
work, for their work." 

The selling of rum was made a punishable offence, 
and whoever was detected in the practice was either 

11 



122 TEMPERANCE IN CANADA AND NOVA SCOTIA. 

confined in the "Fort," or condemned to hard labor 
on the public roads. 

The French decree, forcing upon them their bran- 
dies and wines, at the cannon's mouth, has done 
immense mischief in retarding the glorious reform ; 
but it is hoped that the arbitrary decree of Louis 
Philippe will soon be repealed. 

CANADA. 

In Canada there are about five hundred societies, 
embracing two hundred thousand members pledged 
to total abstinence. The single society of Toronto 
consists of not less than twenty-five hundred mem- 
bers, and has for its president one of the most dis- 
tinguished statesmen and lawyers of North America 
—the Hon. R. B. Sullivan. 

NOVA SCOTIA. 

The following fact speaks well for the temperance 
spirit of Nova Scotia. The Halifax Herald says : — 
" The Spanish brig Beatriz arrived at this port lately 
from Porto Rico, with a cargo, consisting of one 
hundred and twenty-four hogsheads of molasses, one 
hundred and fifty-two hogsheads of sugar, and six 
pipes of old rum. The sugar and molasses sold — 
and sold well: the rum, however, could not com- 
mand a price. It was at length offered at one shil- 
ling per gallon, in bond, which it could not obtain. 
An offer of it was then made for the payment of the 
duty on it, at which it was refused in the Halifax 
market: and yesterday the Beatriz sailed from this 






TEMPERANCE AMONG THE INDIANS. 123 

port, taking back to the West Indies the six pipes 
of rum which she had brought into this temperance 
place! 55 

NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 

The aborigines of our country, the North 
American Indians, have had sufficient wisdom to 
see the propriety and importance of adopting tem- 
perance principles. The Cherokee Nation, some 
time since, enacted a statute for the suppression of 
the sale of ardent spirits within their territories.* — 
Twenty-four hundred of the natives of this tribe 
were enrolled on the temperance list. Alcohol has 
made dreadful havoc among the Indians. The hosts 
of Indian warriors have been swept away by this 
destroyer, like the grass of their own prairies, before 
the fire of the hunter. All along the extended bor- 
ders of the Atlantic, their wigwam fires have been 
quenched ; and the shrill war-whoop and the death 
song have been entirely hushed. The red man has 

* The following is a copy of the Statute passed by the Legisla- 
ture of the Cherokee Tribe : — 

" An Act prohibiting the vending of Intoxicating Liquors" 
" Be it enacted by the National Council, that, from and after 
the first of January, 1842, the introduction and vending of ardent 
spirits in this nation shall be unlawful; and any and all persons 
are prohibited from selling or retailing spirituous liquors within 
the limits of the nation, under the penalty of having the same 
wasted or destroyed by any lawful officer or person authorized 
by the sheriff for that purpose. 

TAH-LE-QUAH. 
Cherokee Nation Oct. 25th, 1841." 



124 TEMPERANCE IN SOUTH AMERICA, ETC. 

been driven from forest to forest, and from river to 
river, whilst the current of civilization, not unlike 
the gulf stream that knows no reflux, still bears 
upon his receding steps. Soon, unless temperance 
can save them, the Indian shall be known only in 
history : soon will the ploughshare have overturned 
all his forests, and his scattered bones lie bleaching 
on the plains ! 

But, when the last fires of the camp shall have 
died out — when the last noble chief shall have fallen 
— let the monument erected over his ashes bear upon 
its front the deep inscription, which all future gene- 
rations may read : Here lies the dust of the mighty 
race, whom the hand of intemperance has brought 
down to an ignominious oblivion ! 

The leaven of Temperance has been working in 
South America; and ten thousand persons have been 
pledged to total abstinence, within a short period, in 
the Dutch settlements, called British Guiana. 

In Europe, America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and 
Polynesia, the fibrous roots of temperance are striking 
deep and wide, bringing into compact union the 
foundations of every country and nation — while 
round its mighty trunk, rally fifteen millions of 
people, of all tongues, colors, castes, and creeds ! 

The temperance movement is indeed a great work, 
in which the hand of God is distinctly seen. Hence 
of its success it may truly be said — "It is the Lord's 
doing, and is marvelous in our eyes." 






CAUSES OF THE PROGRESS OF TEMPERANCE. 125 



CHAPTER XII. 

CAUSES OF THE RAPID PROGRESS OF THE 
TEMPERANCE REFORM. 

Unquestionably we are indebted not a little to 
that terrible scourge, the Cholera^ for the wonderful 
progress of the temperance cause. It never failed 
to select as its first victims those who had been ad- 
dicted to the inebriating cup. While sweeping 
through this land, in 1832, it opened the eyes of 
multitudes to the fact, that Alcohol prepares the sys- 
tem for the attacks of disease in general, and to this 
in particular. It seemed, indeed, not to discriminate 
very closely between the moderate drinker and the 
tippler ; but it leveled them both in one common 
grave, and taught them both that they had been 
making war upon their systems. Says Dr. Bronson, 
of Albany, — "Intemperance in the use of distilled 
liquors has been a more productive cause of cholera 
than any other — and indeed than all others. Drunk- 
ards and tipplers have been searched out with such 
unerring certainty, as to show that the arrows of 
death have not been dealt out with indiscrimination. 
They see the bolts of destruction aimed at their 
heads, and every one calls himself a victim." 

Dr. Bronson, writing from Montreal, says : — 
" Cholera has stood up here, as it has done every- 
where, — the advocate of Temperance. It has 
11* 



126 THE CHOLERA PLEADS FOR TEMPERANCE. 

pleaded most eloquently, and with tremendous effect. 
The disease has searched out the haunt of the drunk- 
ard, and has seldom left it, without bearing away its 
victim. Even moderate drinkers have been but 
little better off. Ardent spirits, in any shape, and in 
all quantities, have been highly detrimental." 

Says the London Morning Herald : — " Intemper- 
ance is a qualification which it never overlooks. 
Often it has passed harmless over a wide population 
of temperate country people ; and poured down, as 
an overflowing scourge, upon the drunkards of some 
distant town." 

In Albany, N. Y., a careful investigation was 
made into the cases of those who died of the cholera, 
in 1832, over sixteen years of age ; and the result — 
examined by nine physicians, members of the medi- 
cal staff attached to the Board of Health in that city, 
and published under the signature of the Chancellor 
of the state — is as follows, viz. : number of deaths, 
366: viz., intemperate, 140; free drinkers, 55; 
moderate drinkers, 131; strictly temperate, 5; mem- 
bers of temperance societies, 2. There were in that 
city more than five thousand members of temperance 
societies ; and only two, not one in twenty-five hun- 
dred, fell by this disease, while it cut off more than 
one in fifty of the entire inhabitants of that city. A 
more conclusive evidence could scarcely be furnished 
of the affinity between alcohol and the cholera. 

Thus, while the cholera was at the time a great 
evil, yet from the important lessons it taught, and 
the impulse it gave to the cause of temperance, it 
produced ultimately a greater moral good than evil 
to our country. 



FIRST TEMPERANCE PAPER. 127 

Another thing which assisted in multiplying the 
trophies of temperance, was the circulation of all 
kinds of temperance documents, from the humble 
tract to the noble octavo volume. Some of the most 
eloquent productions to be found in any uninspired 
book have been called forth from some of our ablest 
men, in efforts to promote this cause. The advocacy 
of fifteen hundred newspapers, besides that of a great 
number of religious magazines, carries an immense 
influence, and keeps the subject before the public 
mind. 

The Temperance cause has worked nobly its own 
press. At the head of it stands E. C. Delavan, Esq., 
of Albany, the able editor of the first temperance 
paper ever published, viz., " The Temperance Re- 
corder." The first impression of this paper, con- 
sisting of twenty thousand copies, was gratuitously 
distributed, at the expense of one man, General S. 
Van Rensselaer. From the single city of Albany, 
twenty millions of temperance documents have been 
issued, to diffuse temperance principles, and rouse 
the mind of the nation. 

Besides this, the temperance enterprise is very 
much indebted for its success to the decided stand 
taken in its favor by a large number of minis- 
ters of the Gospel. It is estimated that there are 
over twenty thousand ministers in America, pledged 
teetotalers. Many of them have preached ably and 
often on the subject, and have taken up collections 
to aid its operations. The great moral influence of 
their profession is brought to bear with all its weight 
against the evil of Intemperance. 



128 TESTIMONY OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 

The Medical Profession, too, has worked nobly 
in this cause : about five thousand have signed 
documents for publication, setting forth the evils of 
using intoxicating drinks. In the city of Boston, 
out of eighty physicians, seventy-five have publicly 
testified that intoxicating liquors are poisons. 

But Religion was the great element of power 
and success in the Temperance movement. This 
cause was the child of prayer, the offspring of love. 
God's spirit alone can give permanency and life to 
any scheme of philanthropy. God, and God alone, 
— the Almighty — he who overturneth the mountains 
and controls all the elements of nature, and binds 
the spirit — can destroy the terrible evil against which 
we are arrayed. — God smiled upon the temperance 
enterprise, and afforded his aid, and it went forward, 
achieving fresh and glorious victories. This was the 
secret of success ; and on the Almighty arm is our 
hope for the ultimate and complete emancipation of 
our country and the w T orld from Intemperance. 



ORIGIN OF THE SONS OF TEMPERANCE. 129 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Sons of ^Temperance. 

ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE ORDER. 

The next great change in the Temperance reform, 
was the combination of the Sons of Temperance. 
The friends of the Order believe that union, co- 
operation, and mutual countenance, tend to strength 
and efficiency in a good cause. To shield each 
other from the evils of intemperance — to afford mu- 
tual assistance in case of sickness — and to improve 
their characters as men, are among the laudable 
objects of the Order. 

The Messrs. J.W. & I. J. Oliver, printers, in the city 
of NewYork, together with a few other active temper- 
ance men originated this movement. A printed circular 
was issued, inviting a number of persons to meet on 
Thursday, Sept. 29, 1842, at Teetotaler's Hall, to 
form a Division of the Sons of Temperance in New 
York. Sixteen persons met, pursuant to the call, 
and there organized New York Division, No. 1, of 
the Sons of Temperance. A constitution was pre- 
sented and adopted, which is substantially the same 
that now governs subordinate divisions. At the 
next meeting, held on the 30th of September, a code 
of by-laws was adopted. A third meeting was held 
Oct. 7th, 1842, when the officers elect were duly 



130 SONS OF TEMPERANCE. 

installed. At subsequent meetings, a form of initia- 
tion was adopted, and also distinguishing badges of 
membership and office. 

On the 28 of Oct. 1842, the regalia now worn by 
the Subordinate Divisions was adopted. 

On the 2d of Dec. 1842, the following Address, 
designed to set forth the objects and advantages of 
the Order, was adopted and ordered to be published 
in the New York Organ — from which it was copied 
into most of the temperance papers in the United 
States. 

"address. 

The Grand Division of the Sons of Temperance, 
of the State of New York, would respectfully address 
you on the subject of the formation and design of 
their Order. 

Believing the use of alcoholic liquids, as a beve- 
rage, to be the prolific source (directly or indirectly) 
of nearly all the ills that afflict the human family, — 
therefore, the first object of our institution is to check 
their blighting influence upon our fellow men, and 
disseminate by every laudable effort the blessings of 
Total Abstinence throughout our common country. 

The Order of the Sons of Temperance, however, 
has three distinct objects in view, which are as de- 
clared in the Preamble of our Constitution — c To 
shield us from the evils of Intemperance ; afford 
mutual assistance in case of sickness ; and elevate 
our characters as men.' 

The first is effectual through the instrumentality 
of the total abstinence pledge. 



ADDRESS. 131 

The second, by the payment of a stated sum as an 
initiation fee, and a weekly due sufficient to enable 
us to pay a sick brother not less than $4 a week — - 
$30 to his family or friends in case of his death, and 
$15 in case of the death of a brother's wife. 

The third, by adopting such rules for our govern- 
ment, as are found best calculated to unite us as a 
band of brothers, laboring for each other's welfare. 

The design contemplates permanent, systematic 
organization throughout the United States, divided 
into three classes, viz. — Subordinate Divisions, 
State Divisions , and a National Division. 

Subordinate Divisions will meet weekly for the 
transaction of business, and shall be composed of 
such persons as may be found worthy. The officers 
are elected quarterly, and are as follows : — Worthy 
Patriarch, Worthy Associate, Recording Scribe, 
Financial Scribe, Treasurer, Conductor, Assistant 
Conductor, and Sentinel. 

State Divisions will meet quarterly, and are com- 
posed of all the Past and Acting Worthy Patriarchs 
of Subordinate Divisions under their respective juris- 
dictions, and over which they shall exercise certain 
powers — the first officers are called Grand Worthy 
Patriarchs. 

The National Division will meet annually, and 
will be composed of the Past and Acting Grand 
Worthy Patriarchs of the State Divisions; in this 
will be vested the supreme power of the Order. The 
Grand Division of the State of New York will ex- 
ercise the powers of the National Division until such 



132 SONS OF TEMPERANCE. 

time as there shall be a sufficient number legally au- 
thorized to form the latter. 

Our Order differs from other temperance organiza- 
tions, inasmuch as we have certain forms and pass- 
words, which are deemed essential to its welfare, 
and to guard against imposition. We would not, 
however, have any think that we design to interfere 
with, or oppose in the remotest degree, other organ- 
izations in the glorious cause of temperance: as full 
evidence of this, it is only necessary to state that the 
projectors, and a large majority of the members of 
aur institution, are now, and ever hope to be, 
actively engaged, in the great Washingtonian Re- 
form, or some other branch of the noble work. But 
we find the necessity of closer union than the pre- 
sent organization aifords, between men feeling the 
requirement of great effort and strong bonds of friend- 
ship, to be cemented by the ties of closer alliance 
and mutual benefit, to keep up and fully maintain an 
unrelaxed spirit of perseverance in the ennobling 
cause of human happiness in which we feel so deep 
an interest. 

The Order of the Sons of Temperance is merely 
intended as another link in the chain, calculated, it 
is thought, from its peculiar construction, to bind 
those who may have been so unfortunate as to ac- 
quire the insatiate thirst for alcoholic drinks, more 
securely to the paths of rectitude and honor. Yet, 
we hope none will think our Order intended only to 
reform the intemperate ; — we desire the strictly tem- 
perate to unite with us, that they may always remain 
so, and that the Order may receive the benefit of 



ORGANIZATION OF FIRST GRAND DIVISION. 133 

their influence ; and we solicit the co-operation of 
the moderate or occasional drinker, that he may 
never become a drunkard! 

Having thus briefly detailed the prominent cha- 
racteristics of our Order, we would earnestly call the 
attention of the friends of temperance to the subject; 
and where approved, we recommend that early mea- 
sures be taken to join with us, by obtaining Char- 
ters for opening new Divisions. 

Arrangements will be made, by which brothers 
migrating may be transferred from one Division to 
another. 

Believing as we do. that the Order of the Sons of 
Temperance will prove eminently useful in extend- 
ing the blessings of Total Abstinence, Brotherly 
Love, and Mutual Aid, we sincerely hope to see 
branches immediately formed in all parts of the 
United States." 

FIRST GRAND DIVISION. 

A Grand Division, composed of Delegates from 
Subordinate Divisions, was convened and organized 
in Concert Hall, N. Y., Jan. 9th, 1843. The an- 
nual meeting of the Grand Division of New York 
was held in Oct. 1843, and then had under its care 
nineteen Subordinate Divisions, containing fourteen 
hundred and ninety-nine members. 

During the year 1844, charters were granted for 
the following Grand or State Divisions, viz. — On 
the 8th of Jan. 1844, for the State of New Jersey. 
On the 5th of Feb. 1844, for the State of Maryland. 

12 



134 SONS OF TEMPERANCE. 

On the 22d of April, 1844, a charter for the Grand 
Division of Pennsylvania. On the 29th of April, 
1844, a charter for the Grand Division of Connecti- 
cut : all of which were duly organized by G. W. P. 
Oliver. 

On the 10th of June, 1844, a charter was granted 
for the State of Massachusetts ; and another for 
the District of Columbia — which were duly organ- 
ized. 



ORGANIZATION OF THE NATIONAL DIVISI 

Seven Grand Divisions, for six states and one 
territory, were represented in a meeting held in Co- 
lumbian Hall, in the city of New York, June 17th, 
1844, for the organization of the National Division 
of the Sons of Temperance, — which was to be the 
highest source of power for the Order, and to have 
under its supervision all the Grand and Subordinate 
Divisions not connected with some Grand Division. 

At this first meeting of the National Division, J. 
W. Oliver presented a part of the form of initiation 
now in use, and stated that it had been written by 
James Nack, a deaf and dumb gentleman. A com- 
mittee, consisting of Messrs. Oliver, P. S. White, 
and others, w T as appointed to revise the ceremonies. 
With the assistance of Mr. Nack, w T ho w T rote all the 
blank verse used in the ceremonies, the present Blue 
Book was completed. 

On the 29th of April, 1845, the Grand Division 
of Virginia was instituted at Richmond, by Robert 



PROGRESS OF THE ORDER. 135 

Neilson, P. G. W. P. of Md. ; and on the 16th of 
April, the Grand Division of Maine was instituted 
at Augusta; and on the 11th of May, the Grand 
Division of Ohio was instituted, at Cincinnati, by 
G. W. P. White. 

The Second Session of the National Division was 
held at the Hall of the Sons of Temperance, in the 
city of New York, on the 11th of June, 1845. The 
Order now consisted of 10 Grand Divisions, 194 
Subordinate Divisions, and over 17,000 members. 

At this meeting, the National Division adopted 
the following preamble and resolution, to wit. — 

"Whereas, the Order of the Sons of Temperance 
was one of the legitimate results of the redeeming 
Washingtonian movement ; and whereas, in order 
to secure the success of sober principles, much de- 
pends on the public agitation of the subject, there- 
fore be it 

Resolved, that the National Division of the Sons 
of Temperance of the United States recommend their 
brethren throughout the country, to support public 
temperance meetings." 

The Grand Division of the State of Delaware was 
organized at Wilmington, Jan. 29th, 1846 ; that of 
Indiana, May 2d, 1846 ; that of Tennessee, on the 
26th of May, 1846. 

The first National Jubilee of the Order took place 
in the city of New York, June 9th, 1846. At one 
o'clock the line was formed by M. W. Marshal T. 
B. Florence of Pennsylvania. The city w T as thronged 
in all directions. Triumphal arches were erected in 
various places. It is estimated that not less than 



136 SONS OF TEMPERANCE. 

10,000 Sons were in the procession. — They were 
welcomed with the cheers of sober men, and the 
waving of handkerchiefs from fair ladies. On their 
arrival at the Park, it is estimated that 30,000 peo- 
ple had assembled to listen to appropriate addresses. 

Another triumphal Jubilee came off in Philadel- 
phia on the loth of June, 1847. The number that 
formed in the procession was considerably larger 
than that of New York. 

The third annual session of the National Division 
was held in New York, on the 10th of June, 1846. 
The accessions during the preceding year had been, 
3 Grand Divisions, 456 Subordinate Divisions, and 
23,000 members. 

Between July 1846 and May 1847, the following 
Grand Divisions were organized and commenced 
their career — viz., that of North Carolina, Kentucky, 
Georgia, Illinois, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, 
Michigan, Missouri, and Louisiana. 

The fourth annual session of the National Division 
was held at the Sons of Temperance Hall, Library 
St., Philadelphia, commencing June 16th, 1847. 

The National Division had at this time under its 
care, 21 Grand Divisions, 1300 Subordinate Divi- 
sions, and nearly .100,000 members. 

The Order received, as initiation fees and dues, 
during the past year $176,614,64. And it paid out 
for benefits, $48,452,02 : and had still in fund, for 
beneficial and other purposes, $73,201,46. 

The fifth annual session of the National Division, 
was held in Egyptian Saloon, Baltimore, June 20th, 
1848. 



ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE ORDER. 137 

*<The Order of the Sons of Temperance bases its 
vast success on organization. Individual Temper- 
ance is well for an individual , having a selfish secu- 
rity in view. To the promotion of great general 
temperance results, the association of individuals is 
necessary ; but their thorough, rapid, and lasting 
achievements can only be accomplished by the com- 
bination of the two, and the further and complete 
development of association in a perfect organization. 
Thus the cause has moved on — individual temper- 
ance first, associations next, and organizations 
now. The Order of the Sons of Temperance, there- 
fore, naturally stands, (and must so continue, if true 
to its great principles,) the head and front of the 
Temperance movement. — Yet, although we claim it 
to be the best condition of Temperance, we by no 
means w T ish to disparage the other great means, out 
of which not only Temperance has continually pro- 
gressed, but even the Order itself has originated, 
and still derives much of its strength: all are good ; 
all equally necessary ; and all meritorious component 
parts of what should ever be considered one great, 
common and important whole. 

<c Several of the most important states have not 
yet sent on their returns. The vital statistics of 
the Order possess the highest degree of interest, and 
speak more eloquently than any words, the great 
advantage of Total Abstinence from intoxicating 
drinks to the physical health and preservation of 
human life. Out of 50,000 members, so far as re- 
ported, (from June 1846 to June 1S47,) w r e have 
lost by death, as appears by returns sent in to Grand 

12 



138 SONS OF TEMPERANCE, 

Divisons, but 240 — being not quite half per cent,. 
of less than five in a thousand. When we consider 
that, in order to save our fellow men, we freely re- 
ceive into our organization those given to intoxica- 
tion, with systems weakened and rendered impure 
by that unfortunate vice, this proportion will be 
justly looked on as furnishing one of the most irre- 
sistible arguments in favor of temperance, and by 
comparison with vital statistics at large, of the phy- 
sical evil of the use of intoxicating beverages. 

" From every part of the country, we have the 
most cheering information, as to the present condi- 
tion and future prospects of the Order. Its good 
results have been apparent in a thousand forms. 
Men rescued from drunkenness ; husbands restored 
to their wives, and fathers to their children, sons to 
their parents, brothers to sisters, citizens to their 
country, and souls to the mild and holy and im- 
portant influences of religion every where grace its 
course, and attest that men, women, the country, 
God and the angels smile upon our Order." 

The following extract from the report of the com- 
mittee on the state of the Order, presented at the 
Fifth Annual Session of the National Division, 
affords gratifying evidence of the rapid progress of 
the Order : — 

" The merest glance at the statistics of its pro- 
gress, is inspiring as a prophet's end. In Sept. 1842, 
sixteen men stood over its cradle. — How little could 
they have dreamed that the little one should so soon 
become a strong nation. A year later, at the first 
annual session of the Grand Division of New r York, 



ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE ORDER. 139 

there were 19 Subordinate Divisions, enclosing a 
membership of 1,499. Six months from this date, 
the National Division was organized, June 17th, 
1844, with a jurisdiction over six Grand Divisions, 
and 71 Subordinate Divisions, with nearly 6000 
members ; tripling the number reported in October 
previous. The second annual session of this body 
presented an aggregate of 10 Grand Divisions, 
194 Subordinates, and 17,000 members, again tri- 
pling our numbers. The third annual session gave 
us a sum total of 14 Grand Divisions, 650 Subordi- 
nate Divisions, and a membership of over 40,000 ; 
the number of our Subordinate Divisions more than 
tripled, and 23,000 added to those within our cove- 
nant. At the fourth annual session, the National 
Division found under its care 21 Grand Divisions, 
1300 Subordinate Divisions, and not far from a 
hundred thousand members. And this day, at our 
fifth session, we may reckon up not less than 30 
Grand Divisions, with 2800 Subordinate Divisions, 
and 160,000 members. The history of any associa- 
tion in the annals of time may be safely challenged 
to match a progress like this. And which of us does 
not feel like congratulating himself upon the charac- 
ter of those with whom, beneath our banners, he 
stands associated. The profession of medicine, the 
bar, the pulpit, the university, the first walks of mer- 
cantile life and the mechanic arts, and the stainless 
yeomanry of the plough, have poured in their volun- 
teers to swell our ranks. In the past history and 
working of the Order, and in the prosperity now 
shining upon its path, we read a promise for the 



140 SONS OF TEMPERANCE. 

future in the fulfilment of which we shall rest from 
our labors, our issues won. And this Institution, 
begun in such feebleness, and sustained amid such 
hostility and prejudice, shall become like the Banyan 
tree of India, — springing on this soil, its branches 
shall take root in all lands, and under its shade the 
kindreds of the earth shall repose." 

" Another band is reared to stand 
Among the brave array, 
Before whose might, though hard the fight, 
Intemp'ra] way; 

Our glorious plan to rescue man 
From sorrow, vice, and shame, 
Still gathers strength, until at length 
It will the world reclaim*" 



PRINCIPLES AND PECULIARITIES OF THE 

ORDER. 

The Constitution and By-laws of the National, 
Grand, and Subordinate Divisions of the Sons of 
Temperance, have been published and widely cir- 
culated. They furnish a true exhibition of the 
design of this important organization. 

The National Division is the head of the Order, 
and possesses jurisdiction over the whole organiza- 
tion. It has the power of establishing rites, ceremo- 
nies, usages, constitutions of government, and Grand 
Divisions ; and of deciding all matters constitution- 
ally brought before it. 



PRINCIPLES AND PECULIARITIES OF THE ORDER. 141 

For alledged grievances and wrongs in Subordinate 
Divisions, recourse can be had to its Grand Division. 
But if a Subordinate Division is not satisfied with the 
action of a Grand Division, an appeal can be taken 
to the National Division ; and thus the moral power 
of the whole Order can be brought out for the de- 
fence or condemnation of any Subordinate Division. 

The fundamental principle of the Order is in the 
following Article, which is agreed to when one is 
admitted a member of a Subordinate Division : — 
"No brother shall make, buy, sell, or use, as a 
beverage, any spirituous or malt liquors, wine or 
cider." The National Division unanimously adopted 
the following resolution, explanatory of the pledge, 
at its third annual session, viz. : a Resolved, that the 
National Division hereby declare that the true intent 
and meaning of the pledge is to prohibit the manu- 
facture, purchase, sale and use of all alcoholic or 
intoxicating liquors as a beverage, w T hether enume- 
rated by name in the pledge or not." In further 
explanation of the pledge, it was resolved by the 
National Division " that no person acting as sales- 
man for a dealer in the above-named articles, (spi- 
rituous liquors,) and disposing of the same to be 
used as a beverage, can remain a member of the 
Order." — See Journal of Proceedings v of National 
Division at Fourth Annual Session, p. 67. 

No Son of Temperance is allowed to buy any 
intoxicating liquor for the accommodation of a cus- 
tomer. 

Agents of the law, sheriffs, constables, and exe- 
cutors, in the performance of their official functions, 



142 SONS OF TEMPERANCE. 

are not included in the general rules relating to Art. 
II. of Constitution for Subordinate Divisions. 

If spirituous liquors or wines be used for a religious 
rite, or for medicinal or chemical purposes, it would 
not be a violation of the pledge. 

Any male over eighteen years of age, who sustains 
a fair moral character, may become a Son of Tem- 
perance, by making application, and complying with 
the provisions of our Constitution. He may be de- 
prived of membership for a violatian of his pledge, 
for immoral or improper conduct, or for not comply- 
ing with our rules. 

The initiation fee in most Divisions is $3 or 
and the weekly dues, the small sum of G] cts. The 
money arising from initiations and taxes constituted 
a fund and permanent income, from which each 
member is entitled to a stipulated sum per work, 
during sickness ; and in the event of the death of a 
member, a stipulated sum is appropriated to defray 
the funeral expenses. Brethren are also to be faith- 
fully visited during sickness, and their wants pro- 
vided for. 

How cheering is it in an hour of sadness and woe 
to be surrounded by brothers, to whom in better days 
we had pledged " Love, Purity, and Fidelity,"' and 
who bring with them the healing balm of relief, to 
soothe our woes and to allay our anguish : who 
come with sympathizing hearts to weep over our 
misfortunes — to bind up our wounds, and to comfort 
us with the sweet tones of friendship. 

Most of the Divisions have a Chaplain, whose 
duty it is to open the meeting with an appropriate 



PRINCIPLES OF THE ORDER. 143 

prayer, and often to read a select portion of Scrip- 
ture. 

One great design of the Order is to reclaim ine- 
briates ; and to throw all the safeguards we can 
around our members. Every meeting night the 
question is asked — u Has any brother violated his 
pledge ?" If any member knows of a brother who 
has violated his pledge, he is bound to report him to 
the Division, or pay a fine of $1 for his neglect. A 
strict watch is thus kept over members, and, as a 
violation of the pledge results in the exclusion of a 
member, a strong motive is thus presented for 
fidelity. 

" Love Purity and Fidelity" is the motto of the 
Order of the Sons of Temperance. Love to God 
and universal love to mankind is inculcated; parity 
of purpose to carry out the great objects for which 
the institution was founded ; and fidelity to all our 
obligations. 

Temperance and Benevolence are also two great 
principles of our Order. 

Truth, Virtue and Honor are also principles 
which should ever adorn the character of a Son of 
Temperance. 

These are some of the principles which the Son 
of Temperance should observe and reduce to prac- 
tice. 

To remind the Son of Temperance of the princi- 
ples of the Order, and to impress them on his mind, 
certain emblems have been adopted. The Red, the 
White, and the Blue, are the colors of the Order 
worn on the Regalia, and are symbols of Love, 
Purity, and Fidelity. 



144 SONS OF TEMPERANCE. 

" The formation and existence of the Order of the 
Sons of Temperance is now a part of the history of 
the nineteenth century ; the eyes of the world are 
directed towards it. By its friends it is regarded as 
the strongest and mightiest lever ever yet employed 
in the great Temperance Reform. By its enemies 
it is viewed with trembling and awe, lest in its tri- 
umphal progress, they, their miserable prejudices, and 
the traffic in alcoholic beverages, shall all be crushed 
as stubble into the very earth. In view of these 
capabilities, let us originate and carry out some com- 
bined plan of operation, by which every sister town, 
city, and state in this great Union, shall at one and 
the same time rise and declare in the fulness of a 
ripe determination, — that we will not any longer be 
laden against our wills with a burden so weighty ^ 
a curse so deadly, an epidemic so fatal, putre- 
scent, and nauseous y as is Intempen na . Let us 
do this unflinchingly ; and by such an exhibition of 
our moral and mental strength, the triumphs of Tem- 
perance will be gloriously and effectively hastened." 



OBJECTIONS REFUTED. 145 

CHAPTER XrV. 
Sous of STemjjerauce, 

OBJECTIONS REFUTED. 

Various objections are raised against the Sons of 
Temperance, the principal part of which it is believed 
originate from mistaken views of the nature and 
design of the organization. I have no doubt many 
good men are sincere in their objections, and think 
they discover great evils in the system. Any good 
system will suffer no injury from a careful scrutiny 
into the principles on which it is based. 

A lady, who had been for many years a great 
lover and diligent reader of the Bible, lately bor- 
rowed of a friend " Faber's Difficulties of Infidelity;" 
and on returning the book, she said, " Doctor, I love 
my Bible more than ever." I have no doubt but 
that we, after examining every objection, shall see 
cause to love our Order better ! 

1. It has been made an objection to the Order, 
that it has thrown difficulties in the way of the 
further efforts of the temperance reformers 
under the old organizations ; and it is insinuated 
that the Sons of Temperance, as such, are bound to 
stand aloof from all participation with efforts in other 
departments of the great Temperance enterprise. 

It is almost unnecessary for me to say, that this 
13 



146 SONS OF TEMPERANCE. 

objection cannot be maintained in truth against the 
Order. That particular individuals in the Order 
might desire to abridge the privileges of members, 
in the way just indicated, is possible ; but this is not 
the spirit of the fraternity. On the contrary, the 
reception of one into the Order of the Sons of Tem- 
perance, so far from being intended to prohibit active 
co-operation in any plan that may seem calculated to 
advance the common cause of Total Abstinence, and 
add to its true votaries, will be found to facilitate 
and encourage such co-operation. A true Son of 
Temperance will stand ready with heart and hand, 
to assist in reclaiming all the victims of intemperance 
that come within his influence, whether they become 
Sons of Temperance or not; and he will rejoice in 
the success of all wise efforts to promote the tern] 
ance cause. 

The Sons of Temperance feel that they are in- 
debted for their prosperity in no small degree to that 
noble band of pioneers in the temperance cause, who 
spent years in diffusing light and truth upon this 
subject, in the face of rude and violent prejudice 
and opposition — amid peculiar trials and discourage- 
ments — but who, nerved by a strong sense of duty, 
persevered in their great work, and prepared the 
way for the brilliant achievements of the Washing- 
tonian movement — and, eventually, of the Order 
of the Sons of Temperance; and they feel that a 
great work is yet to be accomplished by the old or- 
ganizations. There are diversities of gifts and differ- 
ent modes of action — but the same spirit. The 
National Division, at its fourth annual session fur- 



OBJECTIONS REFUTED. 147 

nishes the following decisive testimony in reference 
to the very point now under consideration* It says 
— " The Sons of Temperance sympathize deeply 
with every other effort to promote this cause, and 
entertain no feelings of jealousy or hostility towards 
the other great departments of the temperance en- 
terprise. On the contrary, the National Division 
desire, and urge upon all the members of the Order, 
to take a prominent part in the out-door or public 
efforts to advance the principles of total abstinence 
from all intoxicating drinks. They believe that 
united action will thus greatly promote the universal 
triumph of Temperance, Benevolence, and Brotherly 
Love." (Report on the state of the Order, p. 45 of 
Journal of Fourth Session of the National Division.) 

2. A second objection to the Order is, that oaths 
or pledges are taken by members ichen they are 
admitted. — In reply to this, I would say, that not a 
single oath is administered to a Son of Temperance ; 
and before he pledges his word of honor as a man, 
he is assured, by the presiding officer and others, 
that nothing will be demanded of him which will 
conflict with his duty and liberty as a man — that 
there will be no interference with his political or 
religious opinions, be they what they may. 

3. Another objection to our Order is, that we are 
selfish in our charities, and that assistance is 
afforded only to members. In a word, a man 
must pay for our charity in order to obtain it. — 

But, I ask, is this true ? Must a man pay for our 
charity in order to obtain it ? This we deny. That 
our members — and of all beneficial institutions — are 



148 SONS OF TEMPERANCE. 

entitled to certain benefits in case of sickness, which 
cannot be demanded unless paid for, is readily ad- 
mitted. But these are not our charities. These 
are rights, secured by the constitution on principles 
of justice, and not charities. 

Wherein, then, does our charity consist? — It con- 
sists in the appropriations made from our treasury to 
our own distressed members, over and above their 
claims, and to other persons not united to us, on 
whom we may be disposed to bestow it. It con- 
sists in visiting the sick, and in providing for their 
necessities — in burying the dead — in educating the 
Orphan, and in contributing to the relief of the widow 
and the children of distress. 

But some one may say, " Why not bestow j 
benefits on all / Why confine them to your miHI- 
bers? Why not help every applicant /" To this 
it may be replied, for the very good reason that we 
have not adequate means. Give us the means to 
help everybody who may need assistance, and we 
will cheerfully do it. But, as we have not the 
ability to help all, we must first help our own 
members, and those who help to make up our 
funds. Our resources would very soon be ex- 
hausted, if all are to be equally entitled to draw 
from our funds, whether they contribute any thing 
or not. If we cannot help all, we will help as 
many as we can. If we see twelve men drowning, 
and it is in our power to save six, and bat six, 
will not stand by, and fold up our arms, and see the 
six perish that we can save, under the pretext that 
because we cannot save all we will save none. 



OBJECTIONS REFUTED. 149 

4. Some object to the Order, on account of the 
badges and collars that are worn by the mem- 
bers* — These things certainly are not matters of any 
very great importance. A blue silk velvet collar, 
distinguishes a member of the National Division, — 
and a red collar of the same material, a member of 
some Grand Division, — and a white linen collar, a 
member of a Subordinate Division. The poets and 
florists have regarded the blue as an emblem of 
fidelity, and the red as a token of love, and the 
white as an emblem of purity. We have therefore 
combined the colors of ivhite red and blue in our 
rosette, appended to a collar of each Division, to 
remind every member of his obligations to Love, 
Purity, and Fidelity. 

The Son of Temperance, by wearing these em- 
blems, makes a solemn profession of the principles 
of Temperance, and declares his intention to act in 
conformity with them. Doubtless multitudes will 
concur in the following sentiment expressed by a 
distinguished Son of Temperance : — 

" For our part, we would rather wear the star of 
Temperance, than the star any queen could bestow 
for the picking up a garter: we would rather wear 
the badge of a valiant soldier against Alcohol, than 
any badge which should signify that we fought 
bravely under Napoleon, or conquered a fleet at the 
mouth of the Nile." 

The regalia is merely a badge of office or mem- 
bership, and is not designed to indicate that we 
have any titled nobility, or that we wish to encou- 
rage any thing like kingcraft or titled distinctions. 

13" 



150 SONS OF TEMPERANCE. 

Every thing in the Order seems to favor simple re- 
publicanism ; and the idea is kept up in all the 
ceremonies, that — 

" The deepest in feeling is highest in rank — 
The freest is first in the land ; 
And Nature's own nobleman, friendly and frank, 
Is a man with his heart in his hand." 

The titles are equally free from censure. The 
title of Worthy Patriarch signifies no more than the 
presiding officer of the meeting — the same as chair- 
man, moderator, or president. It is the duty of all 
alike to preserve order, and the one has no more 
authority than the other. 

5. Another objection is, that the Or nade 

a substitute for religion. — The assertion is entirely 
unfounded. It is not claimed by any intelligent Sob 
of Temperance to be a substitute for the Church, or 
for religion. The Order is a voluntary institution, 
Whose object is to combine men of every profession, 

is, and sect, to co-operate together for the ox 
throw of a great national evil. It is a chair : 
institution ; and its principles harmonize with the 
Gospel. This is needed for a distinct sphere of 
operations, as other benevolent associations are 
needed. Benevolent associations are indeed the 
peculiar glory of the age in which we live, and are 
d oinc a noble work, not as substitutes for the 
Church, nor as hostile to her great designs of mercy, 
but as auxiliaries. What millions will have occa- 
sion to bless God for the missionary enterprise ! car- 
rying salvation as it is on the wings of every wind 



OBJECTIONS REFUTED. 151 

to the ends of the earth. Similar in design, is the 
Sabbath-school cause — moulding the plastic minds 
of the rising generation to pure and virtuous thoughts, 
and leading them to God and religion. Such also 
is the American Bible Society, whose design is to 
scatter the Word of the Lord among all people. — 
Among the great benevolent causes of the age, the 
Temperance cause stands prominent. Here is a 
cause, which aims at the extinction of one of the 
greatest evils which afflict the race. Here is a 
cause, in which the christian^ the moralist^ and 
the man of the world can meet and labor together. 
It is an enterprise which calls with peculiar force to 
the Christian for exertion, as it began with religious 
men — and unless sustained by the religious principle, 
cannot flourish. Still, it is receiving efficient aid 
from multitudes who are not professedly religious 
men. 

But it may still be asked — Is not the Church 
amply sufficient to answer all the purposes of this 
department of the temperance enterprise ? To this 
we may reply, that if all men were true Christians, 
and members of the Church, there would indeed be 
no necessity for temperance organizations. But all 
men are not members of Christian churches ; and 
there are many professedly Christian churches that 
take little interest in the cause of Temperance. 
There is a large class of persons who are entirely 
unconnected with any religious society, and the evil 
of Intemperance is so great and wide spread, that 
experience teaches us, that in order to check its 
progress and ultimately remove it, there is an abso- 



152 SONS OF TEMPERANCE. 

lute necessity for combinations, which embrace men 
of every sect, profession, and political party. Men 
associate and combine together for almost every 
great object. They associate for purposes of state 
and for purposes of church — for charity, for litera- 
ture, for mercantile, mechanical, scientific, and agri- 
cultural purposes. And while the Church, in its 
different branches, is the greatest and firmest sup- 
porter of the great interests of virtue and humanity ; 
and while we do not desire the Church to relax her 
efforts, but to extend them, in the great Temperance 
enterprise ; yet, as many will not come into any 
church, or unite with any church action, why 1 
we not, if Christians, relax a little from our eccle- 
siastical dignity, and unite with moral men of all 
religions, and of no particular religion, in specific 
action against Intemperance? 

6. But there is another objection, — regarded by- 
some as the great objection, — it is the ailed: 
secrecy of the Order, — In regard to this objection, 
I would say that, in the objectionable sense in which 
the word is used, we are not a secret society, The 
existence of the Order is no secret; and we declare 
to the world our object, our principles, our meet- 
ings, our numbers, our success, our future plans, 
and the state of our finances. We make our con- 
ditions of membership easy, and invite all men of 
fair character to join our ranks. 

There are a few things designed for the security 
of the Order, and to prevent imposition, which we 
do not consider it expedient to divulge. We have 
some forms of admission to a Division, and ceremo- 



OBJECTIONS REFUTED. 153 

nies in the installation cf officers. We have a sig- 
nal for entering a Division room, and a salutation 
on entering. In the Grand Division there is a yearly 
pass-word — and in each Subordinate Division a 
quarterly pass-word and explanation — by which 
a Son of Temperance can gain admission to any 
Division in the United States, to which these verbal 
keys belong. This pass-word answers, practically, 
the same purpose as a key or bolt in the outside door 
of a man's house, which can be easily changed or 
turned so as to prevent the intrusion of unwelcome 
visitors: an innocent, though convenient little instru- 
ment. 

The form of initiation is also, from prudential con- 
siderations, a private matter. It is not a mere 
useless mechanical ceremony. It has importance 
and influence — is in good taste, and harmonizes 
with the purest principles of morality and religion. 
The candidate has portrayed before him the evils 
that flow from the use of alcohol ; and has weighty 
motives and considerations urged on his mind, in an 
impressive manner, to lead him to put forth his in- 
fluence to benefit others, 

"And warn his fellow man from error's path/ 1 

He pledges himself neither to make, buy, sell, nor 
use as a beverage, any spirituous or malt liquors, 
wine or cider — to observe the Constitution — to pro- 
mote the harmony, and advance the interests of the 
Order. He is exhorted to pursue a life of moral 
purity and integrity — to be courteous, and ready to 
assist the afflicted. 



154 SONS OF TEMPERANCE. 

And if a brother violate his pledge, and is cen- 
sured or expelled, this is a private matter; and no 
member has a right to go and proclaim his faults 
before the world. And does not this coincide with 
the teachings of the Redeemer, where he says, " If 
thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell 
him his fault between thee and him alone." Matt, 
xviii. 15. 

And if a brother is in distress, and we afford him 
relief, or extend to him the hand of charity, this is a 
private mutter, which is not to be blazoned abroad. 
And this, too, is in accordance with the instructions 
of the great Teacher, where he says, " But when thou 
doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right 
hand doeth." Matt vi. 3. 

Even prudence dictates that there are many things 
in every association which should not be retailed 
abroad in the street, or in public places. 

A secret society % properly speaking, is a society, 
the existence of which is a secret to all but its mem- 
bers. Against such societies, and all others, whose 
designs are hostile to virtue and religion, all true 
Sons of Temperance will protest. Such societies 
are dangerous. Of this character was that formed 
by Brutus and his associates against Caesar : of Guy 
Fawkes, for the secret destruction of King James I. 
and the English Parliament: of the banditti who 
infested the mountain passes in the South of Europe, 
whose members frequently mingled unsuspected 
among the peasants of the country, and the artizans, 
and even the nobles of the city. From such com- 
binations may we ever be delivered. 



OBJECTIONS REFUTED. 155 

In contradistinction from all such, the Sons of 
Temperance are an epistle that may be " known 
and read of all men" — fruitful in benevolent deeds. 
Our secrecy is adopted for the simple object of 
avoiding imposition ; or that we may tell a brother 
who comes from abroad from an imposter. 

Men who declaim so warmly against any privacy 
in the Order, are inconsistent, and condemn in others 
what they justify in themselves. The merchant has 
his secret marks ; the senate its secret sessions ; the 
ecclesiastical judicatory its private meetings; the 
jury its retired secret room for preparing its verdict; 
the judge his secret interchange of opinions in banc. 
Washington's army had its outside sentinels, pass- 
words, signs and countersigns, and other private 
matters. 

In fact, look where you will, and you find secrecy. 
It is written upon the wonderful mechanism and laws 
of nature. There is secret mystery in the construc- 
tion and organization of our bodies. Can you fathom 
the secret mysteries connected with the growth and 
development of a single spear of grass ? Can you tell 
me how the air we breathe is put in motion, and 
made at one time to assume the form of the furious 
whirlwind, that prostrates towns and forests in its 
desolating progress, and then is hushed to the gentle 
zephyr, that scarcely ruffles the surface of the glassy 
lake ? 

Who but the Omniscient can read the human 
heart, and develop its hidden emotions ? Would 
you rudely enter the private, social circle, and pro- 



156 DAUGHTERS OF TEMPERANCE. 

claim before the public the wounded pride, disap- 
pointed hopes, misguided affection, and all the 
charities of wedded love ? — Then place sentinels 
around everything — establish a universal espoinc 
— and declare an open war with nature. 



OTHER AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS. 



DAUGHTERS OF TEMPERANCE, 

In addition to the Order of the Sons of Ten 
ance, there hare been instituted various Unions of 
the Daughters of Temperance — based on e 
tially the same principles as th< 
of Temperance. Th >ns are sci 

out more than half of the United S nd their 

numbers are rapidly inc .: and il is evident 

that woman's hand, and woman's heart, arc with us 
in our noble and glorious work of staying the dk 
lating plague of Intemperance. 



CADETS OF TEMPERANCE, 

The organization of the " Cadets of Temperance" 
is a movement designed to enlist the youth of the 
country in the cause of Temperance. Its aim is to 
spread the healing truths of Temperance before the 
minds of the boys of the nation — to form youthful 



CADETS OF TEMPERANCE. 157 

missionaries, who, instructed in the section rooms 
under the above title, will go into the school rooms, 
the family circles, the play grounds, and the various 
walks of life, exhibiting by exa?nple the happy 
results of sobriety, — and by precept the great evils 
of intemperance. 

It is proposed, also, in these nurseries, to have a 
young army properly trained, to take the places of 
the present actors in this cause, when they shall 
have retired from the scenes of this life ; and to save 
the young from ever realizing in themselves the dire- 
ful consequences of intemperance. The movement 
itself originated with Oliver Williams, an intelligent 
lad of thirteen years of age, residing in the village 
of Craneville, Lehigh county, Pennsylvania. But 
nothing like a regular well defined system had been 
established, until December 6th, 1846, when Wynd- 
ham H. Stokes, of Germantown, Pa., — one of the 
most earnest and philanthropic friends of temper- 
ance, and now the G. W. P. of the Grand Division 
of Pa., — projected and gave form to an Order 
adapted to this purpose ; and with great effort and 
labor arranged appropriate forms and ceremonies, 
and a constitution. Shortly after, he initiated a 
number of the youth of the place into its principles, 
and founded the first section of the order of 

CADETS OF TEMPERANCE. 

To E. F. Bleck, Esq., of Bethlehem, Pa., a de- 
voted friend of the cause, is also due a part of the 
historic honor of having assisted in moulding the 
juvenile attempt into shape and consistency. 

14 



158 CADETS OF TEMPERANCE. 

Shortly after the condensation of this movement 
into its present form, the amiable, accomplished, and 
disinterested friend of temperance, Robert M. Foust, 
Esq., of Philadelphia, gave attention to this subject; 
" and seeing in the incipient movement the germ of 
a great good to society, immediately laid hold of the 
enterprise, and succeeded in introducing it into the 
city of Philadelphia." 

Each Section is under the guardianship of three 
responsible and capable members of the Order of the 
Sons of Temperance, one of whom, called the Wor- 
thy Patron, is annually elected by the Sec; ion ; he 
appoints the two others, who are called Worthy 
Deputies, to assist him in the discharge of his duti< 
These gentlemen have the entire supervision of the 
Section. They instruct the officers in their dun 
expound the constitution and by-laws, admin is 
obligations, conduct trials, and decide questions of 
order and diseipline. The W. P's. and W. I)\s. of 
the Sections, after ten Subordinate Sections are or- 
ganized, form a Grand Section in each state — to M 
in which, none but the above named olli eli- 

gible. Its presiding officer is named the Grand 
Patron. The Grand Sections exercise control over 
all the Subordinate Sections in the states where lo- 
cated ; and these in their turn are subject to a 
National Section, yet to be instituted, which will be 
the head of the Order in the United States. There 
are ten other officers elected quarterly in each Sec- 
tion, from among the Cadets, by whom the business 
of the stated meetings and of committees is attended 



CADETS OF TEMPERANCE. 159 

to. Each candidate, on entering the Order, pays a 
small fee for membership, and a weekly sum there- 
after, from which the current expenses of the quarter 
are defrayed. Every thing is arranged on principles 
of good taste, so as to improve the habits and man- 
ners, and elevate the understandings of the youth. 

Since the commencement of this Order in 1846, 
it has been introduced into nearly all the states of 
the Union. Four Grand Sections have been insti- 
tuted. There are nearly 300 Subordinate Sections 
in the United States, seventy of which are in Penn- 
sylvania, involving a membership of between 8,000 
and 9,000 youth ! 

Pennsylvania, as she projected the movement, has 
occupied the position of Head of the Order, and will 
continue to do so until the institution of a National 
Division. 

Among those who have been distinguished in 
efforts to promote this department of the temperance 
cause in Philadelphia, I may name Robert M. Foust, 
Esq., the late efficient Grand Patron, from whose pub- 
lished statement I gathered some of the preceding 
facts ; William J. Mullen, Esq., who with great be- 
nevolence and zeal has exerted himself to promote 
its best interests ; Dr. F. A. Fickardt, M. W. S. of the 
National Division, who with great talent and indus- 
try has applied himself to the advancement of the 
temperance cause in all its departments ; the Rev. 
John Chambers, a most eloquent and uncompro- 
mising enemy to Intemperance, and devoted friend 
of the temperance movement ; S. J. Pickands, Esq., 



160 JUVENILE SISTERS OF TEMPERANCE. 

the present able Grand Scribe ; P. S. White, Esq., 
P. M. W. P. of the National Division, who in the 
discharge of his duties has traversed large and inte- 
resting portions of our own country, and in the spirit 
of this reform disclaiming all national landmarks, has 
invaded even the British Provinces, in the work of 
Love, Purity, and Fidelity ; — and many others. — 
May their fondest anticipations of public utility from 
this movement be more than realized. Relying upon 
Jehovah for strength and wisdom, may they assist 
essentially in reclaiming the moral wastes of earth, 
that they may yet bloom as the garden of God. 



JUVENILE SISTERS OF TEMPERANCE. 

On the same principles as the Order of Cadets, 
with some little variation, to adapt it to the sex, an 
organization has been formed for little girifl under 
the age of fifteen years, styled the " Juvenile Sisters 
of Temperance." 

This organization was projected and reduced to 
system by the present amiable and devoted Grand 
Scribe of Pennsylvania, S. J. Pickands, Esq., who 
speaks of it in the following terms : — 

" No person, we are persuaded, could look on their 
gentle bands — robed in their chaste and classic blue 
girdles, their countenances beaming with delight at 
their interesting and pleasing ceremonies, redolent 



JUVENILE SISTERS OF TEMPERANCE. 161 

of the benevolence and purity of their good cause — 
without sentiments of the most unalloyed satisfac- 
tion. Scenes like these need but to be witnessed, 
to command from every parent, and friend of hu- 
manity and temperance, the most unqualified appro- 
bation." May our nation be ennobled and blessed 
by these gems and flowers. 



162 THE PRESENT ASPECTS OF SOCIETY. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE PRESENT DEMANDS OF THE 
TEMPERANCE REFORM. 

Progress is the law in every great reform. In 
the temperance reform, as we go on, changes occur, 
progress is made, which require a modification in 
reference to our mode of operations. Let us look, 
then, at the present aspects of this cause, and learn 
what is required of us in connection with it at this 
time. 

1. Look at the present B iety. Tl 

seem now to be special efforts making to elevate 
the masses in the scale of intelligence anil vir- 
tue. A necessary prerequisite in this great work, is 
temperance. — All other means will prove abortive, 
without this. Man will not rise intellectually and 
morally, but sink, while he indulges in strong drink. 

The carious famihes and revolutions in fit*- 
ropc, are bringing great numbers of immigrants to 
this asylum for the oppressed, who are unacquainted 
with temperance principles, and will not fall into our 
ranks, without much exertion on the part of the 
friends of our cause. 

The late war with a sister republic, has initi- 
ated multitudes of young men into all the mysteries 
and abominations of intemperance, who have re- 



THE PRESENT ASPECTS OF SOCIETY. 163 

turned to diffuse the poison of their principles through 
the community. 

In some places there has been a great reaction, 
in reference to the work among reformed ine- 
briates. Many have returned again to their old 
habits ; and so many have fallen, that the faith of 
good men in the efficacy of the movement has been 
shaken. 

The efforts of some able men, to prove the un- 
constitutionality of the laws that prohibit the 
sale of alcoholic beverages ■, and the repeal of such 
laws in some cases when they had been enacted, has 
caused a temporary triumph of the opponents of our 
cause. 

The state of New York, after condemning the 
licensed traffic by a majority of 68,000 votes, has 
again bowed to the tyranny of Alcohol, — and the 
vender pursues his business unmolested. In the 
state of Vermont, a majority of 8,000 of her hardy 
sons had said — "Let us strike for liberty ;" but at a 
second election, she had an even balance. In Penn- 
sylvania and Delaware, the judges of our courts 
have come under the rum influence, and pronounced 
the laws enacted against the traffic unconstitutional. 

Other states, again, have done nobly, and have 
acted upon principles of true philanthropy. Maine 
holds on to her integrity, and shuts out the traffic. 
Rhode Island has resolved to be free. Ohio and 
the enterprising states of the West are shaking off 
this vampire, that is sucking out their life blood. 

Too much reliance has been placed by some 
on organizations. Organizations are needed, and 



164 THE TRAFFIC MUST BE RESISTED. 

are good in their place. But if the heart be placed 
on the organization — if that be the idol — and if 
we suppose there is any talismanic power in that, 
independent of the great principles of the cause, we 
shall be disappointed ; the work will not progress, 
but will actually decline. What is really needed, 
where there is a declining interest in the reform, is 
a deeper sense of the evils of intemperance ; n 
impressions of responsibility in relation to it ; and a 
willingness to make sacrifices for its overthrow. 
Such an awakening of the public consei ieh 

a creation of true; principle, and self-denying action, 
could not do otherwise than secure happy results. 
Under this influence, organization would take its 
proper place — would he regarded a^ secondary; and 
by it organization would be sustained. The truth 
is, the principle of temperance is immutable — it is 
indestructible — having truth for its foundation, i 
for its aliment, and human felicity for its end. Tem- 
perance will prevail, although organizations may 
change, or become extinct. It is based upon tru 
and linked in with the progressive advancement of 
our race. Its triumph is certain; its star will be in 
the ascendant ; its final victory is sure. Intemper- 
ance will cease to curse ; its rivers of evil will be 
dried up; tears of bitterness and grief cease to flow; 
broken and disconsolate hearts be healed of all their 
woes. 

2. The cause at this time demands exertion, 
especially with reference to the legalized traffic 
in intoxicating drinks. — This is the mighty barrier 
that now stands in our way. This traffic is carried 



THE TRAFFIC MUST BE RESISTED. 165 

on with great system and success all over the land — 
enticing and corrupting the unwary — recruiting the 
wasted ranks of the fallen — adding thousands of 
victims every year. Opposed to this, are the move- 
ments of the friends of temperance : they are circu- 
lating tracts, books, and periodicals, informing and 
rousing the public mind : they are sending out lec- 
turers — framing and putting in operation different 
organizations. Still, with this traffic in successful 
operation, but little progress is made. What we 
gain is slipping from us, and comes rolling back on 
our hands. We accomplish much, and lose much. 
While things continue as they are, the traffic is 
nearly a match for all our measures combined. And 
in many localities, while the friends of temperance 
intermit their exertions, the enemy is busy, and 
makes considerable headway. This aspect of the 
cause should be seriously considered. As things 
have been moving, our exertions after all have only 
tended to limit and gradually diminish the evil. We 
do much to prevent, mitigate, and repair ; but the 
grand supply continues. There is a grand self- 
perpetuating power in intemperance — and this is 
found in the traffic. It has a vigorous system of 
operations. Its dram-shops line our thoroughfares, 
and float on all our waters. While this system con- 
tinues, we can never gain a complete triumph : we 
shall have perpetually woe to alleviate, pauperism 
to provide for, crimes to punish, and victims to res- 
cue from impending destruction. 

There is a call now for united and vigorous effort, 
to oppose the traffic. While this enemy continues, 



166 THE TRAFFIC INTERFERES WITH 

-we shall be powerfully resisted at every point in our 
movements in the temperance cause. And further, 
this traffic tends to sap the foundation of the whole 
economy of society : it interferes perpetually with all 
the rights and happiness of society. If a manufac- 
turer should set up an establishment that should send 
sterility into its neighborhood ; if a physician could 
live only by creating sickness; if a mariner, in order 
to pursue his business, must introduce infectious 
disease on every return voyage ; if a man can live 
only by piracy and murder ; if one gains a livelihood 
only by sundering the tendeiest ties, and separating 
parents and children, husbands and wives, on the 
coast of Africa, in order to consign them to hopeless 
bondage — who would tolerate such business : Who 
would regard it as moral to pursue either of the 
above named kinds of business, invading, as they 
would continually, the most precious interests of 
society? And yet, the man who is dealing in a' 
holic beverages for gain, is equally invading the 
great fundamental principles on which men must 
agree to live together in society. The traffic, then, 
must be resisted, for the sake of success in our 
cause, and to protect society from its baneful effects. 
And it seems to be assuming greater interest in the 
public mind. Men are now turning their attention 
to this point. In various states of the Union, wise 
men have mooted und agitated the question, and 
have gone to the ballot-box to say, whether the pro- 
tection of law shall be thrown around this traffic. 

In pleading for effort here, we are not to forsake 
other methods of advancing the cause. The public 



ALL THE INTERESTS OF SOCIETY. 167 

mind must be enlightened — moral suasion must 
be employed — in order that the people may be pre- 
pared to demand and sustain right legislation upon 
this subject. And the grand object of law, is sim- 
ply to clear the path for the legitimate and unim- 
peded operation of moral means. We shall be called 
to redoubled exertion by entering upon this new 
field of effort. We shall find it necessary to call 
into requisition the whole system of argument, per- 
suasion, personal influence, and legal restriction. — 
They are but parts of one great scheme of opera- 
tions. We must bring law to bear on the traffic, 
and moral means to win over to virtue those who 
have become victims of the great enemy. While 
effort at this point creates opposition among those 
who, from appetite or avarice, are interested in per- 
petuating the traffic, yet we are encouraged to effort 
by various circumstances. In large sections of the 
country, the numerical strength is clearly with us, as 
indicated by every judicious issue that has been 
made for a considerable time. We have also the 
advantage, infinitely, of comparative worth and 
weight of moral character. We have truth, and 
powerful arguments on our side. We need but 
united counsels, singleness of heart, and persevering 
effort, to carry our points. I have previously shown 
that there is an inherent moral right in the Legisla- 
ture to restrict and prohibit the traffic. — We have 
looked at the terrible evils that grow out of it, and 
have seen that in this lies the great strength of the 
foe. 

But it may be objected — that all our efforts 



168 OUR EFFORTS NOT A FAILURE. 

in this direction have failed ; that ice have tried 
legislation, and have not succeeded. — In order to 
show the incorrectness of this statement, we must 
consider that so important a change in legislation as 
is contemplated in this reform, must be attended for 
a season with popular revulsions. There will be a 
period of fluctuation. The masses of the people do 
not fully understand the subject, and are not pre- 
pared for a stable course of action. The popular 
voice is uncertain. This is to be anticipated. The 
cause has long been familiar with agitation. R lias 
won its glorious triumphs in the midst of such de- 
bate and agitation ; and now, with its strength of 
principle and vigorous maturity, we need not fear 
to trust it once more on the wave of popular agita- 
tion. It will be tossed about for a while, but will 
return again, carrying all obstacles before it. 

We should have more confidence in the strength 
of great principles. In the midst of apparent defi 
by God's assistance, there is a blessing and a victory. 
We cannot expect that a new law will have all the 
force and easy applicability of that which is old and 
well established. We must have a little patien 
till it goes into easy and successful operation. To 
have righteous law on the statute book, is a great 
point. It will be much that it stands there, for there 
is a power in right law beyond its immediate avail- 
ability. Like wisdom, it standeth in the top of high 
places, and its voice is to the sons of men. If it 
exist, it will gradually develop its energies, and it 
can be gradually enforced. 

But others object to effort at this point, he- 



NO ADVANTAGE IN DELAY. 169 

cause the popular mind is yet so divided and 
unsettled, that they allege it is premature to 
demand legislation. — We are told that it will be 
better policy to wait until the public mind is fully 
enlightened and settled, with reference to legislation 
to curtail the traffic. Wait, it is said, till there is a 
general concurrence of desire to prohibit the traffic. 

But should we not be criminal, by postponing 
attention to this matter ? We have taken a view of 
the evils that flow from the traffic. We have seen 
how our laws protect it. We should ourselves be- 
come deeply criminal were we to continue to neglect 
effort at this point. And we may be sure that the 
enemy will become more bold and daring, if he dis- 
covers that we are daunted and afraid to proceed. 
We must be decided and courageous, and connect 
our cause with God ; and then one can chase a thou- 
sand, and two put ten thousand to flight. 

We shall not gain any thing by delay. If we 
wait until this point can be carried without effort, 
we shall never act ; for while we hesitate, the evil 
work is progressing, and gaining new victims. And 
however long we may delay, there will still be this 
great difficulty, arising from a new law, and the 
fluctuations of public opinion. It is not premature 
then to demand restrictive legislation ; and however 
arduous the struggle, duty imperiously calls us to the 
encounter — and with God's blessing we shall suc- 
ceed. 

3. Besides this, the drunkard is to be re- 
claimed. — It has been demonstrated, in the history 
of this cause, that this unfortunate class of our fellow 

15 



170 THE DRUNKARD MUST BE RECLAIMED. 

beings may be recovered. They are not lost to all 
hope of recovery : and they make a strong appeal to 
our sympathies. You have seen the concern of the 
robin for her immature child, which some careless 
boy had stolen from the nest, wounded, and left 
half dead on the ground. How patiently she brings 
it food and water, and nurses it! Tenderly she 
broods over it all night, sheltering its tortured body 
from the cold air of night, and morning's penetrating 
dew. She perils herself, never leaves it, while her 
young has life. This is a touching instance of the 
strong protecting the feeble. How strikingly ten- 
der and touching ! 

How much pains will a tender father sometimes 
take to subdue a wayward child ! What admoni- 
tions will he administer ; what teachers will he con- 
sult ; what expedients will he try ; what prayers will 
he offer, for his rebellious son ! He sees good min- 
gled with the evil : and if he succeed in winning 
back his son to virtue, he rejoices over him more 
than over all the rest of his sons. Well has the 
poet said — 

" Oh, if there be within the human heart 
A feeling holier than all else beside, 
It is the love that warms a parent's heart 
E'en for a sinning child — the only tie 
That death alone can sever, and is felt 
Till the last throb of feeling is at rest." 

From such examples we are taught, not to cast 
off even the fallen and degraded, but, by kindness, 
to recover even the inebriate. The poor outcast 
was not always as you see him now. He was en- 



A CORRUPT LITERATURE. 171 

dowed perhaps with a noble mind, and a kind and 
generous heart ; and if saved he may be extensively 
useful. 

** Give the aching bosom rest, 
Carry joy to every breast — 
Make the wretched drunkard blest, 

By living soberly. 
Raise the glorious watchword high, 
* Touch not, taste not, till you die.' 
Let the echo reach the sky 

And earth keep jubilee !" 

4. Treat also with kindness the drunkard's 
family. — You will sometimes see the wife of the 
drunkard struggling with difficulties to rear a family, 
amid the most pernicious influences. You may do 
a great kindness, and call forth the gratitude of that 
unfortunate woman, by interposing your counsels, 
and imparting such principles to the children as shall 
counteract the father's example. 

5. Children, too, must be interested in this 
cause. — Teach the child that he must touch not, 
taste not, handle not, the accursed thing. If he 
learn the lesson to abstain utterly from the poison, 
he is safe. 

6. Greater caution is demanded ivith reference 
to a corrupt literature, which is calculated to 
give a bias towards intemperance. — Multitudes 
are ruined by reading the corrupt writings of Moore, 
Byron, and many writers of our own age. The 
dangerous influence of an improper advocacy of 
alcohol by some writers, is thus alluded to by a 
Scotch poet— 



172 LECTURERS MUST BE EMPLOYED. 

"Robin Burns, in mony a ditty 

Loudly sings in whiskey's praise; 
Sweet the sang ; the mair's the pity, 
E'er on it he war'd sic lays." 

7. Be consistent. — Patronize temperance stores 
and taverns in preference to rumselling ones. If 
your principles are opposed and ridiculed, be firm 
and consistent in the maintenance of them. Join 
heartily with temperance men in their efforts to 
oppose a common enemy. Do not refuse to act in 
the cause, because all who are connected with it, 
do not sympathise with you in politics or moral sub- 
jects. This is a great cause, and should enlist and 
combine men of every class, party, profession, and 
pursuit. 

8. Lecturers must be employed. — From the 
first, this cause has prospered, through the public 
advocacy of men possessing suitable qualifications 
to instruct and guide the public mind in relation to 
this movement. And the history of the temperance 
reform will show, that it has prospered in proportion 
to the amount of this instrumentality judiciously em- 
ployed. When Hewitt and Frost, and Hunt and 
others were travelling over the land, and lecturing 
on the subject, great numbers were flocking around 
the standard of temperance. And wherever suitable 
men now go out to advocate this cause before the 
public, they are successful. In some states, Grand 
Divisions of the Sons of Temperance have appro- 
priated funds for the employment of travelling lec- 
turers, with decided advantage to the cause. A 



TEMPERANCE LECTURERS. 173 

measure of the kind has been strongly recommended 
to the Grand Division of Pennsylvania. 

Robert M. Foust, Esq., late Grand Worthy Patri- 
arch of the Grand Division of Pennsylvania, in his 
last annual report remarks as follows : — " Having 
acquired some knowledge of the destitution of a 
large portion of our state, and of the wants of Divi- 
sions, in an official tour which I made last summer 
— in which I had the pleasure of meeting some fifty 
of them — I am forcibly reminded of the utility of the 
propositton. A number of places are beginning to 
move slowly in the work of organization. But these 
labors, (through correspondence at the office,) though 
w r ell directed, do not afford the necessary light to 
guide the inquirers to our gates ; there are clouds of 
prejudice intervening ; there are false teachers who 
mislead, and our Band of Purity is viewed in conse- 
quence with distrust and coldness. Now if a com- 
petent Brother were sent to these locations, clothed 
with authority from the Grand Division, it would 
cause those clouds to disappear, strip the deceiver 
of his pretensions, and enable the friends of Tem- 
perance to join with us in the introduction of the 
Order, which is rapidly becoming the embodiment 
of all the Temperance movements throughout the 
land. The strong Divisions would be cheered and 
encouraged in their noble exertions, weak ones 
would be strengthened, and, w T hether viewed in a 
moral aspect, having for its object the elevation of 
fallen humanity, or in a pecuniary sense — in w T hich 
all the expense of the enterprise would be more than 
returned to our treasury, by the increased number 
*15* 



174 TEMPERANCE LEAGUE. 

of Divisions and members — the plan promises ad- 
vantages of the highest character." Few things 
would probably contribute more to the prosperity of 
the cause, than to carry out practically the sugges- 
tion to employ suitable men to traverse various sec- 
tions of the country, to deliver suitable lectures 
wherever they could gain a hearing. 

9. In connection with this plan, I may say that 
interest in the temperance cause has been re- 
vived in many places, by an eminently useful, 
but simple association, called the Temperance 
League* — The object of this is, to unite the whole 
temperance body in one common league — to 
strengthen the cause by a concentration of means 
and effort — and, by receiving a trilling sum annually 
from each member, to raise funds for the support of 
temperance lecturers, and the circulation of tem| 
ance publications. The present philanthropic Grand 
Worthy Patriarch of the Grand Division of Penn- 
sylvania, W. II. Stokes, Esq., speaks in the foil 
ing terms of this measure : — "I would recommend 
that as men fully alive to the importance of the 
cause in which we are engaged, that a portion of 
our time should be devoted to again building up 
among the citizens an organization, which shall in 
its influence reach all parts of the state. Such an 
organization has been recommended by the State 
Convention at its session, Jan. 1849. I would call 
your attention to it, as combining the principle of 
thorough organization, with the addition of supplying 
funds to enable the Association to fulfil its object 

This measure was strongly recommended by the 



HAVE NOBLE AIMS. 175 

State Convention, recently held at Harrisburg. It 
has been successfully adopted in New York, and 
other states in this country — in Scotland, and other 
foreign nations- — as one feasible plan of promoting 
the temperance cause.* 

10. Let your aims be noble, and your views 
philanthropic. — We contend against a great com- 
mon enemy of our race. We are not to contract 
our views, and circumscribe our operations to a nar- 
row sphere. While we aimlo promote the interests 
of the particular organized temperance body with 
which we are connected, and to promote the cause 
in our own neighborhood, let us have no separate 
interests; but let us do what we can to spread 
abroad through the land and the world the great 
principles of temperance. 

* Conventions of religious men, and several clerical conven- 
tions have recently been held, with a view of ascertaining what 
steps should be taken by Christians, in order to arrest the rapid 
increase of drunkenness in our land. The impression is gaining 
ground, that something more efficient should be done by the 
religious portion of the temperance army, in behalf of this 
cause. In the recent Convention of Ministers in Philadelphia, 
called to consider the present aspect of the temperance cause, 
forty-four clergymen of various denominations unanimously de- 
clare that the cause of temperance demands the sympathy and 
co-operation of every friend of the human race ; that it is 
important for the ministry frequently to present the cause to their 
congregations ; that the true and efficient method of advancing 
the reformation, is setting forth the gospel of Christ, and by 
making appeals to the public on the ground of morality, sobriety, 
public good, the present and eternal welfare of men, and the fear 
of the Lord ; that it is important to establish public and visible 
temperance organizations on Christian principles, in churches 
and congregations, in which all classes and ages may be enlisted, 



176 CONCLUDING APPEAL. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

CONCLUDING APPEAL. 

My Friends and Countrymen! the subject is now 
before you. The spirit of Virtue and the genius of 
Liberty invoke your attention and generous action. 
You are responsible for the good you can accomplish. 
Come then and go with us, swell our list, and help 
to push forward our victories, until temperance shall 
be renowned for glorious achievements : in compari- 
son with which, all the victories ever won on the 
field of battle will seem but the visionary triumphs 
of a frenzied imagination. We have heard of the 
gallant deeds of our brave soldiers who fought at 
Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Monterey, Buena 
Vista, and Mexico, in the recent war with Mexi 
But in point of real importance to the welfare of the 
race, the victories in the Temperance cause are in- 
finitely greater. These are bloodless victories, and 
wring no hearts with anguish. 

w Earth praises conquerors for shedding- blood ; 
Heaven, those that love their foes and do them good. 
It is terrestrial honor to be crowned 
For strewing men, like rushes, on the ground ; 
True glory 't is to rise above them all, 
Without the advantage taken by their falL 
He that in fight diminishes mankind, 
Does no addition to his stature find ; 



APPEAL TO YOUNG MEN. 177 

But he that does a noble nature show, 
Obliging 1 others, still does higher grow ; 
For virtue practiced, such an habit gives 
That among men he like an angel lives ; 
Humbly he doth, and without envy, dwell, 
Loved and admired by those he does excel." 

Let me appeal to young men, — Hopes of the 
nation ! Hopes of our cause ! You live in a glo- 
rious age. Never was earth more rich in noble 
enterprises than now. You are called, not to a cru- 
sade to recover the empty sepulchre of the Savior, 
but to engage in a moral warfare, to recover from 
desecration the living temples of the living God. 
You are to contend for human virtue, human happi- 
ness, and human salvation. Never had men such 
an opportunity to immortalize themselves in the 
gratitude of their race. You will soon take the 
places of those who are now sharing the responsi- 
bilities of society. Let your principles of action, 
and your views upon this subject, be correct and 
well established. Look well to your goings, for 
dangers surround your path. Much of the labor in 
this noble cause will devolve on you. Prepare to 
discharge your duty boldly, and in the fear of God. 

I appeal to the ministers of our holy religion. 
Your position prepares you to take the lead in moral 
and religious enterprises. You give tone and cha- 
racter to public sentiment. Retard not this great 
work by your supineness and indifference, or your 
actual hostility to the movement. You are placed 
as watchmen upon the walls to announce the ap- 
proach of danger. Many of your number have been 



178 APPEAL TO PHYSICIANS. 

the able supporters of this cause. Their generous 
exertion in its behalf is above all praise. Like the 
three hundred Spartans, they stand, nobly stand, not 
in the pass of Thermopylae, but of human interests. 
Men of such disinterested devotion to this cause, 
as Beecher, and Nott, and Hunt, and Barnes, and 
Hewitt, and Marsh, and Grant, and Chambers, and 
Brainerd, and Wayland, and Durbin, and Gillette, 
and a host of others of kindred spirit, coming gene- 
rations will rise up and call blessed. 

I appeal to (he medical jirofession. — Many of 
your number have come up already nobly to the 
rescue. Some, however, still shield themselv 
under the plea that alcohol is needful in the treat- 
ment of various diseases. But lei physicians speak 
out, and reiterate former assertions — that there is no 
case in which ardent spirit is indispensable, and for 
which there is not a substitute — and this pretext will 
be blown to the winds. Your social position accu- 
mulates the elements of influence largely in your 
hands. As a profession, you have numbers, educa- 
tion, popular respect and confidence, and maintain 
that kind of intercourse with society which affords 
the best opportunities for exerting an extensive in- 
fluence. You enter the privacy of families, penetrate 
even to the most retired chamber ; you behold the 
human character disrobed of all the drapery thrown 
around it by the forms of society. And it is an 
honor to your profession,- that so large a proportion 
of your number are disposed to wield your influence 
in defence of virtue, temperance, and the general 
good ; that you are so prompt and efficient in abating 



APPEAL TO FEMALES. 179 

social evils, establishing public charities, and pro- 
moting schemes for the improvement of society. It 
is true, there are some examples of an opposite cha- 
racter : there are some physicians who have com- 
bined with the genius of Paracelsus his drunkenness 
and debauchery, and whose extensive influence, in- 
stead of being used to promote virtue, temperance, 
and religion, has been of the most pernicious cha- 
racter. But these are excrescences upon the profes- 
sion, not to be regarded in forming a general estimate 
of its worth. If you stand up nobly and generally, 
as a body, in defence of the truth on this subject — 
if you are consistent in your example — no language 
can describe the importance and extent of your in- 
fluence, which will bring down the blessings of mil- 
lions on your memory. 

/ appeal to the female sex, and ask them to 
give their influence to this cause. The potent influ- 
ence of woman has been acknowledged in all ages. 
Early in the history of the race, we observe a Sarah, 
a Rebecca, and a Rachel, whose influence w r as ac- 
knowledged. You have heard of Helen of Troy, 
who was the means of the destruction of that city, 
after a ten years' siege. You have heard of the pro- 
phetess Deborah, whose influence was exerted for 
the deliverance of her nation from the oppression of 
a heathen king. Cornelia's example to the Roman 
people, in properly training her so-called jewels, has 
been quoted and admired for ages. And the in- 
structive example of the mother of our own illustrious 
Washington, will be referred to with pride in the 
historic pages of our country. 



180 APPEAL TO CHRISTIANS. 

Who has not known, either by observation or 
experience, the influence of the youthful maiden 
over the young man, her lover? Woman's influence 
reigns in the domestic circle, makes home attractive 
and happy, or wretched if the influence is wrong. — 
We solicit your influence in the temperance cause. 
You have been the greatest sufferers from Alcohol. 
Some of you have seen your homes made desolate 
and wretched, by the intemperance of those you 
loved. There are wives in agony, from the degra- 
dation of their husbands. There are sisters, who 
have followed beloved brothers to the drunkard's 
grave. You will need no urging to enlist under the 
pure banner of Temperance. 

Female friends ! as you value your happiness — 
as you regard the welfare of your children — as you 
love your country — do not unite yourselves to the 
inebriate: do not give the tempting beverage to your 
children. You mould the minds of the rising gene- 
ration : let the impress you enstamp on them be pure 
and bright. Think not, female friends, that you are 
stepping beyond your proper sphere, by exertions in 
the temperance cause. 

Say not that Woman's hand 

For Temperance hath no power, 
That she must meek spectator stand, 

In Reformation's hour : 
Behold in garments made, 

That woman now hath wrought ! 
How is the inebriate's home arrayed 

In comforts she hath brought !" 

/ appeal to Christians. — Followers of the meek 
and lowly Jesus ! we need your aid in this great 






APPEAL TO PATRIOTS. 181 

reform. Let the enemy no longer hide in the sanc- 
tuary. Let the Achan be driven from the camp, 
that the spirit of the Highest may descend and bless 
our race. Alcohol stands in the way of the progress 
of pure religion. Gird yourselves for effort in this 
cause, and you will prepare the way for the achieve- 
ments of Christianity. The Church has breasted 
many storms, and triumphed over many foes. She 
has a great battle yet to fight with Alcohol ; and the 
fate of that battle will tell upon the destinies of the 
w T orld. 

Finally r , I appeal to patriots, — Our country can 
never hold on her way gloriously, without being dis- 
tinguished for temperance. The happiness of our 
country, and the permanency of our free institutions, 
depend, all will admit, on the virtue of the people. 
How then, as patriots, can you better subserve the 
interests of our nation, than by seeking to promote 
her temperance and moral improvement? Every 
thing in our condition is urging us to noble exer- 
tions. To this should bend the ambition of the 
statesman ; the efforts of the scholar; the aspirations 
of the artist ; the pervasive influence of the press ; 
the mild persuasion of the sanctuary ; the early 
teachings of the nursery. Every thing urges you, 
my countrymen, to come and help us. The pale 
ghosts of your revolutionary sires bid you come — 
the immortal spirit of Washington bids you come — 
the children that prattle around your firesides bid 
you come: God and your country — all bid you 
come, and strike for Temperance and Liberty. 

It is a beautiful picture in Grecian story, that 
16 



182 APPEAL TO PATRIOTS. 

there was at least one spot — the small island of 
Delos, dedicated to the gods, and kept at all times 
sacred from war — where the citizens of hostile coun- 
tries met, and united in a common worship. So let 
us dedicate our broad country. The Temple of 
Honor shall be surrounded by the Temple of Virtue, 
so that the former can be entered only through the 
portals of the latter : the horn of abundance shall 
overflow at its gates ; the angel of Religion shall be 
the guide over its steps of flashing adamant, while 
within TEMPERANCE shall rear her serene and 
majestic front. And the future chiefs of the Repub- 
lic, destined to uphold the glories of a new era, — 
unspotted by human blood, and unpolluted by the 
fumes of ALCOHOL, — shall be "the first in peace, 
and the first in the hearts of their countrymen." 

"So let it be. In God*a own might 

Wc gird us for the coming fight ; 

And strong bl Him whose cause is ours, 

In conflict with unholy powers, 

We grasp the weapons lie has given — 

The Light, and Truth, and Love of Heaven." 

By the weapons of Light and Love, we shall 
prevail in this contest. When we are able to look 
around in the community, and see none degrading 
themselves by the use of intoxicating beverages, 
with what joy and triumph may we adopt the lan- 
guage of the immortal bard: — 

Now is the winter of our discontent 
Made glorious summer by our full success. 
And all the clouds that lower'd upon our cause 
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. 



APPEAL TO PATRIOTS. 183 

Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths ; 

Our bruised arms hung- up for monuments ; 

Our stern alarms changed to merry greetings, 

Our dreadful marches to delightful measures. 

Grim visaged rum hath smoothed his wrinkled front, 

And now — instead of marshalling our arguments 

To fright the souls of fearful adversaries — 

We enjoy that Heaven-born peace, which 

A moral victory is always sure to afford 

Its faithful advocates. 



THE LIFE AND DEATH 

OF 

KING ALCOHOL. 

BY 

51 JSon of ^Temperance. 



16* (185) 



THE LIFE AND DEATH 



OF 



KING ALCOHOL. 



A Stranger once of lofty mien, 

While trav'ling through this world was seen ; 

So Proteus-like, 't was hard to tell 

From whence he came, from Heaven or Hell. 

He first appear'd in friendship's dress, 
And said he did all good possess ; 
Yea, that he had the fount of bliss, 
That ev'ry earthly joy was his. 

If Fortune frown'd on Adam's race, 
He had a balm for every case; 
And, if his word we might believe, 
Could ev'ry woe at once relieve. 

The pains of head, of limb, of heart, 
He'd bid them in a trice depart ; 
The bloom of health he could restore, 
And make the Old feel old no more. 

If Poverty, instead of wealth, 
Had crept on man by silent stealth— 
If friends had fled like morning dew, 
He promised others, far more true. 

(187) 



! 



188 THE LIFE AND DEATH 

Among the rich he oft was found, 
And made their hearts with joy rebound ; 
Their board he spread at ev'ry feast, 
And was himself a constant guest. 

The poor man's friend he vow'd he was, 
Declared he'd always plead his cause; 
He'd fill his heart with joy and glee, 
And none should happier live than he. 

'Mong Northern tribes he oft would roam, 
To cheer them 'mid their ico-bound home; 
When all around was frozen up, 
He made them sip from pleasure's cup. 

Wide o'er the sands of Afric's soil, 
Where scorchimr heat the natives broil ; 
He there was found, to cool their blood, 
And whet their appetite for food. 

The distant isle, the briny sea, 
The mountain cliff, the rlow'ry lea, 
The North, the South, the East, the West, 
To him their love did manifest. 

With men of ev'ry clime and art, 
He seemed to share a brother's part ; 
Indeed, they all professed, that he 
Alone could bless society. 

The world appear'd to need a friend, 
Who could to ev'ry case attend ; 
A friend, who could their sorrows share, 
And lighten for them ev'ry care. 

The choice was made, and soon was he 
Made Chaplain in earth's ministry ; 
The circled earth his parish was, 
He gave it customs, manners, laws. 



OF KING ALCOHOL. 189 

The Infant scarce had breath'd our air, 
When he was found all ready there ; 
Waiting to guide, by night and day, 
This feeble pilgrim on its way. 

If inward pains disturb'd its rest, 
If aught press'd heavy on its breast ; 
His hand was sure to bring relief, 
And lull to quiet all its grief. 

In riper years, when stronger grown, 
These kind attentions still were shown ; 
The boy could scarce withstand a breeze, 
Without his aid his blood would freeze. 

And when the boy at length appears, 
Dress'd up in manhood's riper years, 
He felt he needed still a prop, 
To keep his boyish manhood up. 

Just like a Miss in corselet laced, 
Of slender form, of hour-glass waist ; 
The long encasement weakens her 
Without this prop she scarce can stir. 

'T was so with him. Throughout his life, 
In boyhood, manhood, wedded life ; 
At morn, at noon, at evening too, 
Without his aid he could not do. 

For morning meals, tho' nicely dressed, 
The man no appetite possessed, 
Till once he was relieved from pains, 
Which shot like arrows through his veins. 

When on his bed he laid to die, 
This friend of his was always nigh ; 
Of all the friends, who gathered there, 
For none but him he seemed to care. 



190 THE LIFE AND DEATH 

When wife and child appeared to be 
Quite blotted from his memory, 
That friend he kept still by his side, 
Consoling him until he died. 

While near his corpse his neighbors stood, 
Each in a solemn, plaintive mood, 
He changed those thoughts which sorrow brings, 
And bade them think on other things. 

A change in all I quickly found, 
And heard the laugh and joke go round ; 
No thought of death was present there, 
And ev'ry heart seemed free from care 

That crowd I followed to the grave, 
And saw how each one did behave: 
Just as you choose, account for it, 
They all appeared devoid of wit. 

With trembling fear, 1 felt inclined 
To make research, if I could find 
From whence this stranger came, because 
He'd changed our morals, customs, laws. 

With this resolve I then went forth, 
To search the earth from South to North ; 
So learn this stranger's pedigree, 
And tell it to posterity. 

I saw a Farmer in his field, — 

To him my object I revealed. 
" I know him well," the man replied — 
" My father by his treach'ry died. 

" By smooth address and art refined, 
He gains access to ev'ry mind ; 
His words like oil do smoothly flow, 
Or else like zephyrs gently blow. 






OF KING ALCOHOL. 191 

" He lived with me some years ago, 
I sent him with my men to mow ; 
He cheered the mowers through the day, 
But then at night produced a fray. 

" From angry words, as each one knows, 
Men oft proceed to deadly blows ; 
One smote my father on the head ; 
We brought him home that evening dead. 

" 'T was then I learned, where'er he came, 
His conduct ever was the same ; 
All fair without, all foul within, 
The perfect prototype of sin. 

" He acts with grace a winning part, 
But is a Hypocrite at heart ; 
I 've pledged myself he ne'er again 
Shall mingle with my working men. 

" And more than this, my neighbors too, 
Will all a sim'lar course pursue ; 
Each man will by the others stand, 
To drive this villain from the land." 

I shook the Farmer by the hand, 
And bade him to his purpose stand ; 
I then inquired the stranger's name, 
And where he lived, and whence he came. 

The Farmer said he understood 
"The stranger was of royal blood; 
He called himself Prince Alcohol — 
He came from Pandemonium hall. 

" But, like all those who live at ease, 
And only live themselves to please, 
He often leaves his murky home, 
To dwell on earth, and o'er it roam. 



192 THE LIFE AND DEATH 

" Sometimes he travels quite alone, 
For fear his object should be known ; 
Assumes a name just as it suits, 
Because for woe he seeks recruits. 

"Sometimes he calls himself 'Brown-Stout? 
And if perchance he is found out, 
With all the meekness of a dove, 
He says his name is 'Perfect Love.'' 

" He has a name to suit the times, 
Like fishermen with baits and lines; 

'Hard Cider" makes one gudgeon bite, 
While 'Porter' hooks another wight. 

"As ' Corpor i >r, 'Sir Strong Beer? 

He'll with the motley crowd appear; 
But when a lady's heart he VI win, 
He will as ' Cordial' enter in. 

"'Mong children he is often found, 
Will romp and play the house around; 
And when they're weary, he will greet 
Their youthful lips as Rum made sweet. 

" Now, I opine, in honesty, 
A greater imp there cannot be; 
But, do n't depend on what I say, 
Go ask Dame Truth across the way." 

I left the Farmer, and intent 
Upon my work, I onward went, 
Perplexed and doubting all the way, 
Not knowing what to think or say. 

My heart was sad, I felt distressed, 
That Villainy was thus caressed, 
While Honesty and Sterling Sense 
Must yield the palm to Impudence. 



OF KING ALCOHOL. 193 

I called on Truth ; my object told, 
And begged she would the case unfold ; 
I could not trust to Lady Lies, 
And Madam Fame I did despise. 

Truth smiled and said, "I'm glad thou'rt come, 
A thousand welcomes to my home ; 
Thy work is hard, but don't despair, 
We '11 chase this Lion from his lair. 

" King Alcohol now rules the world, 
But from his throne he must be hurl'd ; 
If honest men his acts could see, 
I 'm confident of victory. 

M My brother Fact with us will go, 
For he is conversant, you know, 
With all his tricks, and all his aims, 
Since he appeared on Shinar's plains." 

With Truth now leaning on my arm, 
I felt secure from any harm ; 
I pressed her closely to my heart, 
Resolved that we should never part. 

She clad me in her panoply, 
Adorned with Love and Purity; 
And bade me always in this cause 
Most rigidly observe her laws. 

Her piercing eye, her solemn look, 
Which Falsity can never brook ; 
Her awful voice, like ocean's sound, 
Filled every heart with dread profound. 

Her steps were God-like, and her dress 
A spotless robe of righteousness ; 
Her whole appearance told that she 
Was in her nature heavenly. 
17 



194 THE LIFE AND DEATH 

While listening to her counsels sweet, 
We reached at length Fact's safe retreat ; 
Truth introduced my cause and me — 
I found him affable and free. 

Fact is a noble personage, 
His locks and cheeks are marked by age ; 
And ev'ry gen'rous trait is his, 
Though some affirm he stubborn is. 

I told my case, and asked that he 
Would with his presence favor me, 
And let me know without pretence 
Who is this foe of Temperance. 

"O Son of Temperance!" said he, 
"Do thou, with Truth, now follow me; 
I'll unmask sin, and lot you know 
The source of wretchedness and woe. 

"Behold! there sitting at her door, 
A widow'd mother — humble — poor: 
Let us approach ; she weeps, you see; 
Come, ask her why this agony?" 

With scalding tears the widow said, 
" My husband and my son are dead ; 
I charge their death on him they call, 
If I am right, King Alcohol. 

" This King has made the earth his home, 
And up and down doth constant roam ; 
His officers are everywhere — 
Alas ! they '11 drive me to despair. 

" My husband, whom you oft did see, 
Was kind as husband e'er could be ; 
But, when he first saw Alcohol, 
He changed to wormwood and to gall. 



OF KING ALCOHOL. 195 

" His words were curses, and his breath 
Grew foetid like the damps of Death ; 
His bosom once with Love did swell, 
But it became a type of Hell. 

" With blood-shot eyes and bloated face, 
He soon was void of every grace ; 
Foul passions raged within his soul, 
Like howling winds without control. 

" He lived awhile a moral pest, 
And acted like a man 'possess'd;' 
His health was gone — his reason fled — 
He soon was numbered with the dead ! 

" Now come with me, and soon you '11 know 
The source of wretchedness and woe." 
I went. She led me to a place, 
To human nature a disgrace. 

It is a place of concourse great, 
Because r t is sanctioned by the State ; 
All kinds of sinners thither go, 
It is a central point of woe. 

I entered in, that I might see 
The scenes within this groggery. 
Lo ! there, one 'neath the table lies, 
And yonder 's one with blacken'd eyes. 

There leans another, belching up 
The contents of the last drunk cup ; 
Another in the corner raves, 
And on the floor the glasses staves. 

The curse, the growl, the loud ha-haw ; 
The slavering mouth ; the hanging jaw; 
The battered face ; the bloody nose ; 
The naked body ; tattered clothes : 



196 THE LIFE AND DEATH 

The gouged eyes ; the matted hair ; 
The idiot laugh ; the vacant stare ; 
The smoke, the filth, the horrid smell, 
Proclaim — the Purlieu 't is of Hell. 

'Mid all this scene of fiendish noise, 
I saw the man the De'il employs, 
As his great Agent here below 
In fitting men for endless woe. 

When Satan did with power condense 
Avarice, Meanness, Impudence, 
And to a mass the whole reduce, 
A Drunkard-maker did produce. 

Come, friendly Truth, now guide my pen, 
While I describe, of all the men, 
The meanest, vilest, and the worst, 
That e'er society has cursed. 

In character this man will be 
A type of the fraternity; 
Some are surly, some are civil, 
But all are agents of the Devil. 

From all that's good, his soul is free, 
His heart's surcharged with infamy, — 
No soft compassions o'er him roll, 
No pity e'er can melt his soul. 

The Orphans' sighs, with Widows' tears, 
Vibrate like music on his ears ; 
He cares not who through him is damned, 
If but his coffers can be crammed. 

He has no love for God or man, 
But aims to grasp in all he can ; 
'Tis evident his nature is 
Meanness, combined with Avarice. 



OF KING ALCOHOL. 197 

With smiling face, or fiendish grin, 
He's still th' embodiment of sin ; 
Of Hell itself his heart, you see 
Is an exact facsimile. 

Within the bar he stood alone, 
Observing how his work was done ; 
It was his element to be 
Amid such scenes of revelry. 

The man who can, for sake of gain, 
His sober senses still retain, 
And calmly send men down to Hell, 
Deserves a wrath no tongue can tell. 

I then approached, and begged he would, 
By all that's sacred, all that's good, 
Be moved by prayers, entreaties, cries, 
And stop of souls this sacrifice. 

He said, with curses, "I've a right 
To murder men by day and night ; 
To kill, the court has licensed me, 
And for this right I 've paid my fee. 

" 'T is needful that all men should die ; 
If others kill them, why not I? 
The Court have fully sanctioned it, 
And for this work they 've judged me fit." 

Truth wept aloud, and Fact looked sad. 
To think that Justice had gone mad; 
.And now, instead of doing well, 
She 's helping sinners down to hell ! 

With heavy heart I then returned, 
And soon the case of Justice learned; 
King Alcohol had closed her eyes, 
Through his great power to mesmerize. 
17* 



198 THE LIFE AND DEATH 

He had by bribes such influence, 
As stripped her of her common sense ; 
Though in her hands she holds the scales, 
To do what's right she often fails. 

The case is sad ! But — O ! there 's hope ! 
Lo ! Mercy comes to wake her up ; 
I see her leading by the hand 
Her "Sons of Temperance" — noble band. 

These Sons are sober, firm and true, 
Their badge is red and white and blue; 
With steady step they now advance 
To meet their foe — intemperance. 

They are supported on the right 
By that old soldier, Rechabite; 
And on the left, that noble man, 
General WashingtoniaiL 

"Justice, arise!' 1 cries Mercy. " See, 
Here's Alcohol, thine enemy: 
Arise, and with my Sons unite, 
And for thy God and country fight." 

The spell is broke. Justici, at length, 
Majestic rose, in God-like strength; 
With Troth and Fact and Miner met, 
The battle in array she set 

She shouts : " Behold the foe ! They come, 
Marshalled by Cider, Beer and Rum, 
And Alcohol, their king, you know, 
Is their Generalissimo. 

" A motley mass of troops untaught 
I see he has together brought — 
Of Rum-sellers and Rum-makers, 
Liars, Thieves, and Sabbath-breakers. 



OF KING ALCOHOL. 199 

" But fear them not. Be strong, I say, 
And quit yourselves like men to-day; 
The vict'ry 's ours, for God will bless 
The cause of truth and soberness. 

" Let each be firm, and at his post, 
For each is in himself a host ; 
Let each be faithful, bold, and true, 
Observe the white, the red, the blue." 

The foe rushed on, and thought they might, 
By noise and shouting, quickly fright 
The Sons of Temperance from the field, 
And make them each inglorious yield. 

Then Justice calmly drew her sword, 
And gave her all-commanding word : 
" Ye noble Sons ! now onward — go, 
And ne'er be slaves to such a foe." 

They met: and fierce and doubtful was the fight 
From early dawn till late at night ; 
Then Justice rushed on Alcohol; 
She pierced his heart — I saw him fall. 

Each Son of Temp'rance gave a shout — 
The foe was quickly put to rout ; 
The cowards ran with might and main, 
Soon as they saw their King was slain. 

A host of prisoners then were caught, 
And into camp were quickly brought; 
They were condemned, both great and small ; 
In Chrystal Fount we drowned them all. 

When morning came, the news had spread, 
That old King Alcohol was dead ; 
And all his soldiers who were found 
Were in the chrystal waters drowned, 



200 THE LIFE AND DEATH 

Vast multitudes flocked in to see 
The body of their enemy ; 
For ev'ry heart with joy was filled, 
That this old Rogue at last was killed. 

Truth gave advice to search his tent, 
For there they'd find a document, 
Made out in Hell, by Satan signed, 
Empowering him to kill mankind. 

They did. Oh ! horrid to relate — 
They found it so. And that each State 
Not only di<f the work permit, 

But solemnly had sanctioned it ! 

The Document by Fact was read, 
Confirming all that Truth had said; 
This is a copy. Let it be 
Transmitted to posterity. 



THE DOCUMENT. 

" In conclave met, in Hell's dark Hall, 
I, Satan, give King Alcohol 
Full power the human race to kill, 
And with their souls these caverns fill. 

11 Put on the garb of Innocence, 
Let all your kindness be pretence; 
Whate'er you do, where'er you go, 
No act of mercy to them show. 

" To gain their Judges' full consent, 
You'll pay a tax to Government; 
And when that 's done, be sure you do 
In secret kill the Judges too. 



OF KING ALCOHOL. 201 

" Christ's servants are my greatest foe, 
But how to manage them I '11 show ; 
Invite them with the rich to dine, 
Then treat them to a glass of wine. 

% 
" And as regards the populace, 
One man against another place ; 
Allure by gain. I've proved it well, 
Men will their souls for lucre sell. 

" With sulphur your commission's sealed, 
Let not its contents be revealed ; 
Now go, and slaughter all you can — 
Of all that bear the form of man." 

When this was read, the multitude 
Decreed at once, in solemn mood — 
Let Alcohol in flames be burned, 
And Judges out of office turned. 

His body in the fire was cast, 
Judges unjust deposed at last ; 
The earth once more in beauty smiled, 
And man with man was reconciled. 

Loud shouts of joy the heavens rent, 
Upward the world's loud anthem went ; 
And God looked down with joy, to see 
That earth had now tranquility. 

Ye Sons of Temperance, well done — 
Thus spake the High, and Holy One — 
Your faithful work will Heaven approve, 
Performed in Purity and Love. 

Still let your Star an emblem be 
Of Light that emanates from ME ; 
And let your conduct demonstrate 
You 're what your emblems indicate. 



202 THE LIFE AND DEATH, ETC. 

Be pure in heart. Be holy — good. 
Then when you have all sin withstood, 
You'll upward rise and dwell with ME, 
The God of Love and Purity. 



A CHOICE COLLECTION 

OF 

ORIGINAL AND SELECTED 

TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 



(203) 



TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES 



ORIGIN OF THE WORD "TEETOTAL." 

The word teetotal originated in this way : — In 
1833, Richard Turner, a simple, eccentric, but hon- 
est and consistent reclaimed drunkard, obtained no- 
toriety as a speaker on temperance in the town of 
Preston, England. He had risen to the position of 
plasterer's laborer, and was honored with the dis- 
tinctive title of "Dicky Turner" — having before 
been known only as " Cockle Dick," from his hav- 
ing hawked and cried that and other shellfish through 
the streets for a livelihood. While speaking at a 
temperance meeting on a certain occasion, he is said 
to have made use of the following provincialisms in 
a philippic against the moderation pledge : — " I '11 
hev nowt to do wi' this moderation — botheration — 
pledge ; I '11 be reet down — tee-tee-total for ever 
and ever." ""Well done," exclaimed the audience. 
" Well done, Dicky," said Mr. Livesey, " that shall 
be the name of our new pledge." 

Conveniently embodying the sense of the new 
principle, it was eagerly adopted to express it ; and 

18 (205) 



206 TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 

being a few times employed in a paper called " The 
Moral Reformer," it soon became popularly esta- 
blished. The word teetotal, like whig and tory, 
has now become part of the English language, and 
is a familiar term all over the world. 



INTEMPERANCE INJURES OTHERS BESIDES 
DRUNKARDS. 

The Rev. T. P. Hunt, who has justly secured for 
himself the honorable appellation of " The Drunk- 
ard's Friend," in an address on Temperance, at 
Boston, asserted that those who did not drink, 
suffered more acutely, and more heavily than the 
habitual drunkard. And to prove this, he adduced 
the following painful proofs. One was the instance 
of a man who was strictly temperate, riding in a 
stage-coach. The driver, being under the in- 
fluence of liquor, overturned the coach, and dislo- 
cated the ankle and broke the ribs of his passenger. 
That injured man some time before the accident had 
said, " 0/ liquor will never hurt vie — I dortt 
drink it." Did it or did it not hurt him ? 

He then related the sad particulars of a painfully 
interesting scene which had taken place in one of 
the courts in Philadelphia. The husband had been 
obliged to bring his wife before a court of justice, to 
make her answer for her improper conduct. That 
wife had shone among the highest and the brightest, 
and there she had become a drunkard. Confounded 
and humiliated, she turned towards her broken- 



TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 207 

hearted and dejected husband, and in a burst of re- 
pentant language, which pierced the heart of every 
one who was present, exclaimed, " O! William, 
forgive me this once, and I ivill never drink 
again." The agonized husband turned round to 
her, and in a manner which conveyed at the same 
moment ecstacy and doubt, said in broken accents — 
for his heart was full, and his soul was sorrowful — 
" Sarah, say that again." She did so ; the husband 
then ran to embrace her, and they left the court to- 
gether to sign the pledge. Did not drink hurt that 
sober husband ? 

Another instance of this kind was the following. 
The wife of a sober husband had become a drunkard 
also. She was connected with the first families in 
the country. Her fate, and that of her little babe, 
had been truly tragical : while in a state of intoxica- 
tion, she with her infant in her arms had fallen into 
the fire, and both were burned to death ! At one 
time that ill-fated woman would with a broken heart, 
and in strains of the most acute sorrow and anguish, 
lament her disgrace and her moral degradation, and 
at another she w T ould defy the God of heaven, and 
vow that she would not give up the sin of drinking. 
Under the plea that she must make use of certain 
drinks in order to afford nutriment to her babe, she 
had come from the nursery a drunkard. That wo- 
man had contracted a love for the use of intoxicating 
liquor at gay and fashionable parties. Did not drink 
hurt that sober husband ? In two months after, he 
went to his grave, the victim of sorrow produced by 
the drunkenness of his wife, and the melancholy 



208 TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 

death of her and their common child. He earnestly 
implored all to use every effort to put down the traf- 
fic in the business of ruin, desolation, and death. 
He invited the liquor-sellers to meet him in Faneuil 
Hall to debate the question. He hoped they would 
come forward ; but if they did not, he would lash 

THEM THROUGH THE HORIZON OF THE UNIVERSE. 



THE END OF THE SOCIAL GLASS. 

A person who has suffered severely from his pas- 
sion for liquor, thus feelingly describes the progress 
and painful effects of that destructive vice : — 

I was once a respectable man. I can well re- 
member the first step which led me to what I am 
now. I was decoyed into a tavern, and there, first, 
when I was at the tender age of fifteen, with intel- 
lectual promise as fair as ever made a parent's heart 
bound with joy, my friend, who was the most de- 
tested enemy I ever had, though " but dust" now, 
handed me the cup : I remember the light and joy- 
ous sensation which bounded through my brain. I 
felt a delicious delirium, was pleased with everybody 
around me — felt brave enough to march to the can- 
non's mouth. All this, however, passed off with the 
first sleep, and would never have been thought of 
again, but for the dreadful fact that then and there I 
got a taste of that Circean cup, which has all but 
poisoned me to death, and will soon finish me. That 
was the first in a series of steps downward. I went 
home every night with high ideas ; and when in the 



TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES, 209 

morning I rose, it soon became necessary, after a 
kind of waking, giddy dose through the forenoon, to 
go to the sideboard. This alarmed my mother and 
sisters. They thought it strange, and remonstrated ; 
but I despised the idea of being a tippler, and was 
angry because they expressed their fears, after they 
had seen me do it a few times, that I would form 
the habit of drinking. 

Had I been just to those fears then, I should not 
be w r hat I am now. Let the young man who is just 
acquiring the taste, not disregard these gentle admo- 
nitions ; they are the suggestions of guardian angels, 
which, if obeyed, will open to him the path of peace, 
health, contentment, and honor: if disobeyed, he is 
destined to trouble, discontent, disgrace, sickness, 
and death. I could go now and call for my glass, 
treat, and be treated. It was gentlemanly — and 
why should not I be a gentleman? I was getting 
up in life, and must be able to master a glass of 
brandy, gin, or whatever the fashionable drink was. 
When at length I began to be somewhat alarmed at 
this surprising progress in dissipation, I resolved to 
abstain for a limited period. Then my ambition 
would kindle up, for I wished ardently to be a great 
man. I studied earnestly for a time the science cf 
law and politics ; but, when the allotted period ex- 
pired, forward I would rush again into the channel, 
like a current that, having been dammed up, breaks 
over the frail barriers with fresh impetuosity. 

I got married — for woman, affectionate woman, 
will not hear of faults in him she loves. " He will 
soon reform. . He loves me too well to make me 
18* 



210 TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 

unhappy. He knows I shall not like it. He pro- 
mises to abstain." Ah, deceived woman! Love 
may be stronger than death, but the power of the 
cup is stronger than both. What! a drinking man, 
a man that can drink five glasses of brandy a day 
with pleasure, is not far from that point, when he 
will sacrifice health, wealth, pride, patriotism, repu- 
tation, love, life, every thing, for that damnable 
thirst. I loved my wife as much as man could ; I 
was as sensitive to honor and reputation as any ; but 
I tell you I could, when the habit of drinking was 
thoroughly formed, (which was before I was aware,) 
have sacrificed any thing. I have often come home, 
and found my wife weeping in silence — a silence 
that at first used to gore my soul, but liquor soon 
hardened any thing that looked like tenderness. She 
has told me the children wanted clothes, but " Curse 
the children," said I, " I want my drink, and I '11 
have it." One night I stayed until two o'clock at 
the tavern, playing cards, and who should come in, 
at that dread hour of the night, but my wife, with 
her infant in her arms ! This is a fact. My God f 
if my blood didn't run cold, and curdle at my heart! 
" Is this woman ? is this my wife !" I exclaimed. 
Never before did I realize the full power of female 
virtue. My profane companions and myself were 
perfectly abashed. I cursed her, and told her, with 
severe threats, to go home. " No ! that I will not," 
said she, rising in the dignity of injured innocence, 
though with a trepidation that shook her whole frame 
like an aspen, and holding her trembling infant out 
to me : " This is your child, and I will not stir one 



TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 211 

step from this spot, till you take it, and go home 
with me." She then turned to my companions, and 
upbraided them as my destroyers, in a strain of in- 
vective that made them cower like so many discov- 
ered and disarmed assassins before the messenger of 
retributive justice. We separated, ashamed of each 
other and our deeds of darkness, and almost sobered 
by this strange and astounding apparition. I obeyed 
implicitly ; for nothing makes a man more mean- 
spirited than the habit of drinking. We went home, 
and retired to rest ; but waking up in the night with 
a horrible thirst, I tottered to the bottle, and drank ; 
went to sleep again ; slept till ten o'clock ; and, 
when I arose, felt dizzy and bewildered, wretched 
and hopeless ! And so my days are passing ! Give 
up the practice, I will not. I cannot live without it 
I have now no character to lose, no mind to study, 
no business to employ me, no ambition to inspire, 
no love, exceping for brandy, gin, whiskey, rum — 
any thing which will supply, while it continually 
inflames more and more this dreadful thirst. 



THE DANGER OF MODERATE DRINKING. 

We knew a beautiful young woman, an only 
daughter, the pride and joy of her feeble and de- 
clining parents. There came into her father's 
employ a benevolent, industrious, pleasant young 
man, of some natural talent, who very prudently 
had resolved not to drink but two glasses a day, — 
one in the forenoon, and one in the afternoon. He 



212 TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 

paid his addresses to her, and she received them. 
In about a year they were married. He had at this 
time doubled his dose, and very prudently resolved 
that he would never drink more than four glasses a 
day. Rum, however, soon had more power over 
him than prudence. His face began to swell, his 
breath grew foetid, he lost his good nature, his in- 
dustrious habits left him at a time when a growing 
family called for his exertions — he was thrown out 
of employment ; and there he was, a poor, misera- 
ble, profane, idle, beggarly drunkard. This came 
gradually — but it came certainly. His poor wife 
was an object of distress, and of universal pity. She 
bore up under her sufferings as well as so frail a 
thing was able to do ; and in a short time death 
came and gave her release. It broke down the 
whole family, father, mother, and brothers, — for all 
their hopes were placed on her. 



THE DRUNKARD BECOMING A SUICIDE. 

A Mr. Norton, of Ohio, who committed suicide 
recently, was a victim of intemperance. He had 
been respectable and highly esteemed, but his habits 
changed his fortune and reduced him to misery. — 
The following brief note was found in the chamber 
where he committed the act : it may easily be inter- 
preted : 

'Mrs. Harriet T. Norton — I die that you may 
be happy. Elisiia Norton.' 



TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 213 



PLUCKING THE ROSES 

A blacksmith in one of our villages had in his 
possession, but under mortgage, a house and piece 
of land. Like many others, he was fond of the 
social glass. But he joined the temperance society; 
and about three months after, he observed one 
morning his wife busily employed in planting rose- 
bushes and fruit-trees. 

"My dear," said he, " I have owned this lot for 
five years, and yet I have never known you before 
to manifest any desire to improve and ornament it 
in this manner." 

"Indeed," replied the smiling wife, " I had no 
heart to do it until you joined the temperance society 
— I had often thought of it before, but I was per- 
suaded that should I do it, some stranger would 
pluck the roses and eat the fruit. Now, I know 
that, with the blessing of Providence, this lot will be 
ours ; and that we and our children shall enjoy its 
products. We shall pluck the roses and eat the 
fruit." 



INTEMPERANCE EXPENSIVE. 

A farmer in Connecticut, who has occupied the 
same farm on lease for about thirty years past, was 
lately complaining that he had been able to lay up 
nothing from his thirty years' labor. A neighboring 
storekeeper offered to explain to him the reason, and 
proceeded as follows : " During the thirty years that 



214 TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 

you have been on that farm, I have been trading in 
this store, and the distilled spirit I have sold you, 
with the interest of the money, would have made 
you owner of the farm which you now hire." On 
examination of the books of the storekeeper, his 
assertion was found to be correct. The farm was 
worth about five thousand dollars. 



A TOUCHING CASE. 

In an address at a late temperance anniversary, 
said a speaker — During the cholera season there 
came into my office in New York, one forenoon, a 
grocer with whom I had been acquainted, and said 
with much agitation, I am going to give up selling 
spirituous liquors. Why ? said I. Because, re- 
joined he, there came into my store this morning at 
a very early hour a young man, who, looking up to 
the brandy bottle which stood upon the shelf, ex- 
claimed with a fearful oath, Come down ! come 
down! you killed my grandfather — you killed my 
father ; come down now and kill me. What that 
young man said, continued the grocer, was but too 
true. His grandfather died a drunkard, and with 
liquor obtained at my store. His father died a 
drunkard, and w r ith liquor obtained at my store. 
Both drank from the same bottle, and both w r ere 
dead — both the grandfather and the father; and 
now the son had come to claim the sad privilege of 
drinking from the same bottle, and dying as his 
grandfather and father had died. I looked at that 



TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 215 

young man — I thought of the past ; and it seemed 
as if the way to hell from my store was very short — 
that I could from behind the counter, where I stood, 
look quite into it. I felt that the business of selling 
liquor was a bad business, and I made up my mind 
to quit it. 

And, true to his purpose, he did so ; and before 
the sun went down, every keg and decanter was 
removed from his premises to return to it no more. 
A blessing followed that decisive act ; and having 
refused any longer to receive the wages of unrighte- 
ousness, he has enjoyed the visitation of the Spirit, 
and been made — and his family have been made — 
partakers in the purer, higher, holier, pleasures of 
religion. Inn-keepers, grocers, dispensers, from the 
counter or the bar-room, of the same disguised poi- 
son, you have heard this brief but affecting narra- 
tive ; and having heard it, I ask, how does your 
experience tally with the proclaimed experience of 
your fellow laborer, in that common occupation in 
which you have been engaged ? Have your brandy- 
bottles, or beer casks, or rum jugs, been more or 
less effective than his, in this work of death ? Can 
you recall the names, or sum up the number of those 
customers of yours, who, reeling one by one in suc- 
cession from your dispensaries of sin and suffering, 
have disappeared and sunk down to the abodes of 
death ? Is the way longer from your counter or your 
bar-room to the graveyard, or even to that hell be- 
yond it, than it was from his ? Could you in fact 
look into the latter as he did in fancy — w T hat think 
you would be the discoveries such a vision would 



216 TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 

unfold? Could you see the horror-stricken coun- 
tenances, could you hear the unceasing wail of those 
to whom, standing at your counter or your bar, you 
have meted out by measure and for pay this well- 
known element of death — even of the second death : 
could you do this, what would your emotions be as 
your eye met theirs, who are now suffering in hell 
the torments brought upon them by indulging in those 
appetites to which on earth it was your unworthy 
and cruel office to have ministered ? — Dr. Nott. 



THE MODERATE DRINKER. 

While attending a reference at a tavern, (said 
Mr. B., who told the story,) I heard a gentlemanly- 
looking man call, "Landlord, let's have a small 
glass^ It struck me to be a very reasonable re- 
quest, and he who made it not only a modest man, 
but a moderate drinker. " Landlord, a small 
glass, if you please," was soon repeated by the 
same voice : yet it was but a small glass — and that 
could not be much. The modest request for the 
moderate quantity was reiterated, until the tenth 
was ascertained to be one too many — for it was by 
means of that unfortunate glass that the gentleman 
lost his character as a moderate drinker. And so it 
generally is ; the victim begins moderately — pro* 
gr esses moderately; and even in spite of red eyes 
and nose, blotched and bloated face, swelled ankles, 
tender feet, hoarse voice and trembling limbs, he 
maintains his character for temperance ; and it is 
only when he gets undeniably drunk, that he is 
acknowledged to be the worse for liquor. 



TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 217 

LITTLE END OF THE HORN. 

A tailor opened a tavern in Jersey : his wife 
was very much opposed to it. He got his bar, 
decanters, rum, &c, all ready — when he began to 
think about a sign. He wanted something new — 
and this puzzled him a good deal : at length he 
went to his wife and asked her. "I'll tell you 
what," says she; "have a big horn painted, with 
yourself crawling out at the little end" And sure 
enough he did come out at the little end, considera- 
bly bruised too ; for he manufactured himself into a 
drunkard, and finally went to ruin. 



INTEMPERANCE MAKES MEN SELFISH. 

In the town of Vansville, Maryland, a man after 
having drunk up all his substance, became at last 
worthless and abandoned. He left his children en- 
tirely to their mother to feed, or to let them starve. 
She had four, and was often made to feel that pang, 
W'hioh only a mother knows, when she hears her 
children's cries for bread, w T hich she has not to 
bestow. 

She arose one day as soon as it was light, to work 
for her children, whom she left asleep on the floor, 
where they had lain around her, crowded together 
for mutual warmth, and but half covered with shreds 
of old blankets and rags — the only remains of her 
husband's drunkenness. While at work carding, 
one of the children awoke, went to his mother, and 

19 



218 TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 

piteously cried for a piece of bread. The cries of 
the first disturbed the second, and presently all four 
were around her, with pale countenances and watery 
eyes, begging for a little food, of which she had not 
a morsel for them or herself. 

This scene continued for several hours, until at 
12 o'clock one of the neighbors, for whom she had 
been spinning, sent her half a bushel of corn. It is 
not easy to conceive the transports of the poor 
mother and her children at the sight of the grain. 
She gave it to her husband to carry to the mill, at 
a short distance, and waited with anxiety for his 
return. 

Grown keener now at the thought of their bread, 
the children became more restless than ever; and 
the torturing cries of bread ! bread ! began again to 
tear the mother's heart. But presently a dreadful 
suspicion at her husband's delay all at once racked 
her brain. She hastened to ascertain the cause ; 
and when she came within sight of a grog-shop near 
the mill, she beheld him reeling and swaggering 
before the door. The hard-hearted wretch had sold 
the corn for that infernal fluid called whiskey. 

I know of no vice which will make a man so 
superlatively selfish, and render him so completely 
a child of hell, as drunkenness. 

Another case: — A widow woman of the same 
State brought three little children, by drinking, to 
nakedness and starvation. One day about 12 o'clock 
she left her children, who had been crying all the 
morning for bread, to go to a neighbor's for some 
meal and some whiskey. Having staid a long time, 



TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 219 

and got somewhat intoxicated, she went reeling 
home with her meal. Upon her entrance, she found 
the apartment empty. She called aloud for her chil- 
dren, but heard only the echo of her sad voice. She 
searched for them, but searched in vain. The even- 
ing was very cold, and during the night there was a 
fall of snow. Their infant heads had no covering, 
and their trembling bodies but one scanty article of 
clothing. Having crossed a stream, they took a 
wrong course, and lost themselves in the woods. 
The eldest was six, and the youngest but three 
years old. The next day they were found locked 
in each other's cold embraces, with marble cheeks 
and lips closely pressed together. And as they 
could not be separated, they were thus buried in one 
grave : and the mother, in her fits of distraction, 
talks about being the murderer of her own children. 



THE TEMPERANCE MAN ACTING ON PRIN- 
CIPLE. 

The course adopted by the captain of a coasting 
vessel, in Maine, may afford a good lesson to those 
who quiet their consciences under this plea. The 
captain was well known as an inflexible, uncompro- 
mising temperance man — neither used intoxicating 
drink himself, or would employ a hand that used it. 
And that was not all : he would not transport it as 
cargo. This was generally known ; and as he was 
about sailing from Bangor to Boston, a merchant 
wishing to send for a quantity of spirits by his ves- 
sel, and knowing the objections of the captain to 



220 TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 

carrying such an article, in order to deceive him and 
get his liquor by his vessel, resorted to this decep- 
tion : he drew an order on his friend in Boston for 
so much liquor, but apprised him of the captain's 
scruples, and requested his friend to mark the casks 
"vinegar," and to make the entry in the bill of 
lading to correspond. The order was obeyed, the 
vessel sailed ; but on the return voyage the captain 
discovered the trick that had been played upon 
him. 

On arriving at Bangor, the gentleman who had 
ordered the liquor came on board, and asked the 
captain if he had brought him so many casks of 
vinegar. " No," was the reply ; " I have so many 
casks marked vinegar, but the Boston folks have 
made a mistake — they have put up rum." After 
some parleying, the merchant finally told the cap- 
tain that he knew it — he had sent for it ; and offered 
to pay him the freight. u Oh, no," said the captain, 
" I don't do business in that way — I don't deliver 
rum for vinegar ; I will carry it back, and leave it 
where I took it ; you can settle with the man who 
sent it." And he was as good as his word. He 
returned it to Boston. Yes, and every man of moral 
principle will approve his decesion. Very many 
cases might be given, where carriers, and distillers, 
and venders have made far greater pecuniary sacri- 
fices in carrying out their temperance principles. 

S. Chipman. 



TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 221 

DEATH OF ALEXANDER. 

When Alexander was at Babylon, after having 
spent a whole night in carousing, a second feast was 
proposed to him. He went accordingly— and there 
were twenty guests at table. He drank the health 
of every person in the company, and then pledged 
them severally. After this, calling for Hercules' cup, 
which held an incredible quantity, it was filled, when 
he poured it all down — drinking to a Macedonian 
of the company, Proteus by name ; and afterwards 
pledged him in the same extravagant bumper. He 
had no sooner swallowed it than he fell upon the 
floor. " Here, then," cried Seneca, describing the 
fatal effects of drunkenness, " this hero — unconquered 
by all the toils of prodigious marches, exposed to the 
dangers of sieges and combats, to the most violent 
extremes of heat and cold — here he lies, subdued by 
his intemperance, struck to the earth by the fatal cup 
of Hercules." In this condition he was seized with 
a fever, which in a few T days terminated in death. 
No one, says Plutarch and Arria, suspected then 
that Alexander was poisoned: the true poison which 
brought him to his end was wine, which has killed 
many thousands besides Alexander. 

The mighty Alexander, 

Who conquered half the earth, 
Wept for more worlds to conquer, 

Which well nigh moves our mirth • 
Himself he could not conquer, 

Nor wine's degrading powers ; 
Let those who will extol him — 

The victory is ours ! " T Anecdotes. 

19* 



222 TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 

OLD ZACHARY, THE MOHEGAN. 

The late celebrated John Trumbull, when a boy, 
resided with his father, Governor Trumbull, at his 
residence in Lebanon, Connecticut, in the neighbor- 
hood of the Mohegans ; a remnant of which tribe 
still linger there, sacredly protected in the possession 
of the graves of their fathers. Mr. Trumbull gives 
the following story himself, in his life written by 
himself, and which he says " deserves to be written 
in adamant." 

The government of this tribe was hereditary in 
the family of the celebrated Uncas. Among the 
heirs to the chieftaincy was an Indian by the name 
ofZachary. "Though an excellent hunter, he was 
as drunken and worthless an Indian as ever lived." 
By the death of intervening heirs, Zachary found 
himself entitled to the royal power. Says Trumbull: 
IC In this moment the better genius of Zachary re- 
sumed its sway, and he reflected seriously. — 'How 
can such a drunken wretch as I am, aspire to be the 
chief of this honorable race? What will my people 
say — and how shall the shades of my noble ancestors 
look down indignant upon such abase successor? 
Can I succeed to the great Uncas? I will drink 
no more ! ' He solemnly resolved never again to 
taste any drink but water ; and he kept his resolu- 
tion." 

Zachary succeeded to the rule of his tribe. It 
was usual for the Governor to attend at the annual 
election in Hartford ; and it was customary for the 
Mohegan Chief also to attend, and on his way to 



TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 223 

stop and dine with the Governor, who was the father 
of John Trumbull. John was quite a boy; and on 
one of those occasions, when Zachary came to com- 
pliment his venerable father, the following occur- 
rence took place at the Gubernatorial table, which 
we relate in the words of Trumbull : — 

" One day the mischievous thought struck me to 
try the sincerity of the old man's temperance. The 
family were all seated at dinner, and there was ex- 
cellent home-brewed ale on the table. I thus ad- 
dressed the old Chief: Zachary, this beer is excel- 
lent, will you not taste it ? The old man dropped 
his knife and leaned forward, with a stern intensity 
of expression — his black eyes, sparkling with angry 
indignation, w r ere fixed on me: 'John,' said he, 
c you don't know what you are doing. You are 
serving the devil, boy ! Do you know that I am an 
Indian ? I tell you that I am, and that if I should 
but taste your beer, I could never stop until I got to 
rum, and become again the same drunken, contempt- 
ible wretch your father remembers me to have been. 
John, never again iv/iile you live tempt a man 
to break a good resolution? 

" Socrates never uttered a more valuable precept. 
Demosthenes could not have given it in more solemn 
tones of eloquence. I was thunderstruck. My pa- 
rents were deeply affected. They looked at each 
other, at me, and at the venerable old Indian, with 
deep feelings of awe and respect. They afterwards 
frequently reminded me of the scene, and charged 
me never to forget it. He lies buried in the royal 
burial place of his tribe, near the beautiful falls of 



224 TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 

the Yantic, — the western branch of the Thames, in 
Norwich, — on lands now owned by my friend Calvin 
Goddard, Esq. I visited the grave of the old Chief 
lately, and there repeated to myself the inestimable 
lesson." 

EXTRACT FROM P. S. WHITE'S ADDRESS, 
AT NEW YORK. 

I remember an anecdote which is related of the 
Court of Macedon. A refined and virtuous lady 
had charges preferred against her by certain cour- 
tezans of the Court. The case was determined 
against the innocent and virtuous damsel : she ap- 
pealed from the decision of the tribunal to the king 
himself. It so happened that just at the time when 
she approached the monarch he was engaged in a 
drunken revel. In this state he listened to the 
prayer of the petitioner for a reversal of the sen- 
tence. The king, deaf to her eloquence and insen- 
sible to the justness of her cause, confirmed the 
decision of the tribunal below. The girl, at this 
infamous procedure, drew herself up in offen 
dignity, and in the consciousness of virtue said 
aloud, "I appeal " ''Appeal!" said the as- 
tonished monarch ; " and to whom do you appeal ? 
What power is there greater than the throne?" 
u I appeal," replied the undaunted girl, " from 
Philip drunk — to Philip sober !" It was enough. 
The cause was laid over until the following day ; 
when the sobered monarch reversed the former de- 
cision, and the innocent triumphed. This was a 
manifestation worthy of the dignity of the sex. 



TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 225 

THE LADY'S COMPLAINT. 

Mr. Cary relates the following anecdote : — At a 
temperance meeting where he was called to lecture, 
in a country town, he found on inquiry that there 
was but one woman present who had not signed the 
Pledge. He went and spoke to her privately, and 
asked her if she had become a member of the So- 
ciety. " No, I hain't," said she with the bitterness 
of a real Tartar. He learned from her that her hus- 
band was grossly intemperate. 

"Now T ," said Mr. Cary, " perhaps if you will 
sign the Pledge, your husband may be induced to 
sign." At once softened a little by his kind address, 
she replied — and she drew him a little closer, and 
almost whispered as she said it — "Mr. Cary, I do 
not want he should sign the Pledge. I have a coin- 
plaint on me, that renders it necessary for me to 
take a little liquor myself; and if my husband signs, 
I'm afraid that he will not give me any." 

Her husband did sign that very night, and is now 
a sober man. After the meeting was over, Mr. C. 
enquired of some of her neighbors what that com- 
plaint was. 

"Why," said they, "her complaint consists in 
her being the greatest drunkard of the two." 

Poor woman ! she must die of her complaint, for 
her husband, as she anticipated, since he has become 
a Washingtonian, will give her no more liquor. 

Now, when we see a lady refuse to sign the tem- 
perance pledge, we are very prone to think that that 
lady has a "complaint" 



226 TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 

THE INDIAN AND THE DISTILLER. 

An Indian who had a wife and young child, took 
all their winter food, namely, five bushels of corn 
and ten bushels of wheat, to be ground at the mill. 
Bu.t he had to pass a distillery. The distiller ran 
out, as a spider would upon a fly, and asked the 
Indian to sell his grain. The Indian refused, saying 
that it was all the provision laid up for his family. 
The distiller insisted upon getting the corn, saying 
he would give him so much whiskey for it, and 
added that the wheat would be quite enough for his 
family. The Indian consented : and after he had 
drank some of the whiskey, agreed to sell the wheat 
too. All that he got for his load, besides what he 
drank, was a jar containing about a gallon and a 
of whiskey, and a dollar in silver. With this 
treasure, the Indian returned home ; but, not being 
very steady, he fell, and fortunately broke a hole in 
the bottom of his jar. He also lost his dollar; so 
that, when he returned home, a broken jar was all 
that he had to show T for his load of grain ; and he 
with his family were reduced to beggary for the win- 
ter. When the distiller was remonstrated with upon 
the subject, he replied, with a grin, — " If I had not 
got the grain, some other would." 

It may be a laughing matter now ; but will this 
man laugh w T hen he stands w T ith his victims before 
the judgment seat of Him who has said, " As ye 
would that men should do to you, do ye also to 
them likewise," and who has required all men u to 
do justly, and to love mercy?" 

Can. Temp. Advocate. 






TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 227 

NO ANIMAL BUT MAN WILL GET DRUNK 
MORE THAN ONCE. 

You cannot make any thing drunk more than once 
but man. Try this once on any other creature but 
man, and you will never make it drunk again. The 
experiment has been tried, and I will tell you how. 
Once upon a time — and it was tried on an animal 
very similar, very nearly approximating to man — a 
couple of wicked wags, in want of a joke, deter- 
mined to take Jacko, and see how he would relish 
the liquor. The next time they went to the tavern 
they took Jacko, determined that he should have 
some of the " critter," and join them in their spree. 
They decoyed him, and partly, I suppose, from the 
spirit of imitation, and probably (for who can tell?) 
Jacko thought that they — being possessed of facul- 
ties so superior to any that he possessed, so capable 
of reasoning and deciding on what was presented to 
their notice — would not induce him to do any thing 
that would injure him, they managed to make him 
swallow a quantity of the liquor, and sufficient of it 
to make him drunk ; and a very gay, chattering, 
lively, frolicksome monkey he was, too. But the 
drink passed off, and the next day he appeared very 
different ; the fact was he looked horrid, and no 
doubt felt very bad. He looked very low and sad 
and disconsolate. The youngsters, however, were 
much tickled with the mischief they had done, and 
so pleased that they determined to try again. They 
accordingly took Jacko again and wanted him to 
drink the liquor, but Jacko would not. They tried 



228 TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 

to force him, but Jacko fought and bit and scratched 
and screamed, and finally escaped to the top of the 
house, where he remained, nor could they induce 
him to return to them in the house. Here we see, 
that with all their efforts and endeavors, they could 
not induce poor Jacko to get drunk a second time : 
the experiment was made, but instinct taught him 
to shun it — nature had implanted no appetite for it 
there. I believe man is alone in this ; a brute once 
sickened never tries it again. 



THE RUxMSELLER CONVICTED BY HIS WIFE. 

A wine dealer's wife, in the commercial capital 
of the state, whose conscience was ill at ease in re- 
lation to the traffic in intoxicating liquors, availing 
herself of an auspicious moment, said to her husband, 
" I do not like your selling liquor, it seems to me to 
be a bad business ; you do not, I suppose, make 
more than one or two hundred dollars a year by it, 
and I should be very much rejoiced if you would 
give it up." "I know," answered her husband, 
" as well as you do that it is a bad business ; I 
should be as glad to give it up as you would be to 
have me, and if I did not make more than one or 
two, or even five hundred dollars a year by it, I 
would give it up." u How much then," enquired 
his wife, " do you make?" " Why," replied her 
husband, " I make from two to three thousand dol- 
lars a year — an amount quite too large to be relin- 
quished." " What you say." she rejoined, " brings 



TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 229 

to my mind the remarks of a lecturer I once heard, 
■who having repeated what Walpole said in relation 
to every man having his price in politics, added that 
it was much the same in religion. Satan, continued 
he, is a broker — not a wheat or cotton or money 
broker, but a soul broker : some can be procured to 
labour in his service for a hundred, some for a thou- 
sand, and some for ten thousand dollars a year. The 
price at which you estimate your soul, I see, is three 
thousand dollars a year. My dear husband, look 
you well to it — to me it seems that even three thou- 
sand dollars a year is a paltry price for that which is 
truly priceless." 

On the mind of that husband sudden conviction 
flashed ; and liberal as was his portion in those re- 
wards of unrighteousness which Satan proffered, he 
resolved, and avowed the resolution, to receive it no 
longer. 

Dealer in these disguised poisons, how stands this 
profit and loss account with you? Have you summed 
up the items and ascertained the total to be by you 
received in exchange for that which " angels dare 
not bid for, and worlds want wealth to buy?" 

Not without reason did the poet say, in reference 
to the debasing influence of sinful mercenary pur- 
suits — 

" How low the wretches stoop ! how deep they plunge 
In mire and dirt : they drudge and sweat and creep 
Through every fen, for vile contaminating trash. 
Since prone in thought their nature is their shame ; 
And they should blush, their forehead meets the skies." 



20 



230 TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 

HARD ARGUMENTS. 

A jolly son of Neptune came up to a reverend 
gentlemen in Charleston, not long since, shaking a 
handfull of silver dollars. " Why Jack," said the 
pastor, jestingly, " you are flush to-day — do you in- 
tend to make me a present of all these dollar- 
" Faith, no," said the honest tar, "these are not 
dollars — they are arguments." "Arguments? Why, 
what do they prove ?" " Faith, and they prove that 
Temperance is a good thing. Now, sir, I received 
my wages when I got into port here the other day, 
and had just twenty dollars, and says I to myself, 
now this goes for grog and fun. Well, sir, the first 
night I spent five dollars at the hop, leaving 

me just fifteen. But as you had appointed the ii> 
night for a Temperance meeting, and begged us all 
to come up, I thought I would go just to hear what 
you had to say. Well, sir, I signed the pledge that 
night, and here's the rest of my grog-money all 
saved. Now r , sir," continued Jack, shaking his 
money at the parson and laughing, " do n't you call 
these fifteen good, hard arguments in favor of 
Temperance?" Temp. Anecdotes. 



THE END OF A TEMPERATE DRINKER. 

A friend of mine once gave me the number and 
the names of a social club of temperate drinkers 
which once existed in Schenectady, and of which, 
when young, he was himself a member ; and I have 



TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 231 

remarked, how bereft of fortune, how bereft of repu- 
tation, bereft of health, and sometimes even bereft 
of reason, they have descended, one after another, 
prematurely to the grave ; until at length, though 
not an old man, that friend alone remains, of all 
their number, to tell how he himself was rescued 
from a fate so terrible by the timely and prophetic 
counsel of a pious mother. 

Among these cases of moral desolation, I remem- 
ber one of peculiar aggravation — it was that of a 
gifted and aspiring individual, and a professed Chris- 
tian. Crossed and humbled by domestic affliction, 
he sought, as many still seek, relief in alcohol. His 
friends foresaw the danger and warned him of it ; 
that warning he derided ; he even denied the exist- 
ence of a propensity, which, by indulgence, was 
soon thereafter rendered uncontrollable ; when sud- 
denly, shrinking from the society of men, he shut 
himself up in his chamber, and endeavored to drown 
his cares in perpetual inebriation. His abused con- 
stitution soon gave way, and the death-scene fol- 
lowed. But, oh! what a death-scene! As if quick- 
ened by the presence of the King of Terrors, and 
the proximity of the world of spirits, his reason sud- 
denly lighted up, and all his suspended faculties re- 
turned in their strength. But they returned only to 
give to retribution a severer aspect, and render the 
final catastrophe more instructive and more terrible. 
For though at intervals he seemed to pour his soul 
out in confession, and to implore forgiveness in the 
most thrilling accents, shame, remorse, and despair, 
were predominant; and there was at times an awful- 



232 TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 

ness in the paroxysms of his agony, which no words 
can describe, and which can be realized by those 
only who witnessed it. " There," said he, pointing 
to his bottle and his glass, which he had caused to 
be placed beside his death-bed, " there is the cause 
of all my misery : that cup is the cup of wretched- 
ness ; and yet — fool that I have been! — I have 
drank it; drank it voluntarily, even to its dregs. 
Oh, tell those miserable men, once my companions, 
who dream of finding in inebriation, oblivion to their 
miseries, as I have dreamed of this ; tell them — but 
it were vain to tell them — oh! that they were pre- 
sent, that they might sec in me tin 4 dreadful sequel, 
and witness, in anticipation, the unutterable horrors 
of a drunkard's death." Here his voice faltered — 
his eye fell upon the abhorred cup — and, as his spirit 
fled, a curse, half articulated, died away upon his 
quivering lip! Da. Nott. 



THE DRUNKEN FATHER AMONG THE CASKS. 

An unknown man was found at midnight, dead 
drunk, among some casks on the pier foot of Peck 
Slip, and lying upon his body were three little girls. 
The children had found their father in this sad plight, 
and instead of leaving him to his fate, were watching 
over him — weeping as if their little hearts were bro- 
ken, and shivering under the influence, of cold night 
wind. When the motherless children were discov- 
ered, the youngest was in a deep sleep, with its soft 
pale cheek lying on the bloated breast of its father. 



TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 233 

A BRAVE SOLDIER. 

A lady, who had always been accustomed to 
regard wine as a necessary article in household use, 
and requisite in the entertainment of her friends and 
guests, in their calls and visits, asked a fashionable 
young lady, who was making an afternoon visit, if 
she would take a glass of wine after her walk. The 
young lady consented, and a little son of cur fair 
hostess, coming in from school, was requested to 
turn out the poisonous draught. He went towards 
the decanter, but stopped short, crying, "Why! I 
can't, mother — I belong to the Cold Water Army." 
The lady summoned her Irish girl, who came in, 
and finding what was wanted, shook her head and 
said, " Me can't, mum — me has taken the pledge, 
and here is me maddle round me nack," producing 
one of the pewter medals worn by the Irish who 
have taken the total abstinence pledge. Suffice it 
to say, that the lady, though she was compelled to 
turn out the alcoholic beverage herself, will never 
do so more : and now both ladies, the entertained, 
as well as the entertainer, have given their names to 
the good cause of temperance. Samaritan. 



LEARN TO SAY NO. 

The Rev. Mr. Trumbull, of Hartford, Ct., in a 
Temperance Discourse remarked — 

" The devil does not ask men to commit gross 
sins at once, but leads them on step by step, until 
20* 



234 TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 

they are bound down by the force of habit so strong- 
ly, that it is impossible for them to rise, unaided, 
and resume the position which they before occupied. 
Young men yield to temptations which appear inno- 
cent in themselves, w r hich would be innocent in fact, 
were it not for the bad consequences which flow from 
them. It is easy to go down the stream ; but when 
a person attempts to throw off habits which he has 
contracted, and pull up again to the point from which 
he started, lie finds a strong current opposed to him, 
and he hangs between life and death, like the fool- 
hardy adventurers who descended in a small steam- 
boat down the rapids of the Niagara to the point of 
the small island which divides the stream, and upon 
turning 'o ascend, found that the force of the current 
just balanced the force of the engine, holding them 
for several minutes stationary, after which they began 
slowly to ascend. 

"In guarding against temptation, the most im- 
portant thing for a young man is to read daily from 
the Holy Scriptures, and learn to say NO. A man 
upon lis death-bed called his son, and placed in his 
hand a Bible, telling him as his last advice — 'Read 
this Bible, and learn to say NO.' The young man 
read the Bible, more or less ; and coming finally to 
the city to obtain business, entered the employ of a 
merchant as clerk. One cold night, when he had 
been detained at the store to a late hour without 
supper, he was invited by some of his Mlow clerks 
and young men, w T ho had dropped in, to go into an 
oyster saloon on their way home. He was stron 
tempted, while he stood near the steps and looked 



TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 235 

into the bright and cheerful looking place, to go in 
with his companions ; but, when about to yield to 
the temptation, the form of his father seemed to rise 
before him and say solemnly, l R.ead your Bible, and 
learn to say NO.' No, said the young man, and 
turned on his heel and went to his home, took his 
supper, and went to bed with a clear conscience ; 
and his prosperity and success in after life he as- 
cribed to his decision on that night." 



THE MIAMI CHIEF. 

The celebrated Miami chief, Little Turtle, said— 
" When a white man trading in our country meets 
an Indian, he asks him the first time, ' Take a 
drink ;' he says ' No ;' he asks a second time, ' Take 
a drink ;' 'No;" he asks the third time, 'Take a 
drink, no hurt you ;' he take a little, then he wants 
more, and then more — then the trader tells him he 
must buy. He then offers his gun — the white man 
takes it — next his skins — white man takes them : he 
at last offers his shirt — the white man takes it. When 
he gets sober, he begins to enquire, 'W^here is my 
gun?' he is told, 'You sold it for whiskey.' ' Where 
is my shirt ?' 'You sold it for whiskey ?' Now, my 
white brothers, imagine to yourselves the deplorable 
situation of that man who has a wife and children at 
home dependent on him, in a starving condition, 
when he himself is without a shirt!" 



236 TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 

THE FOLLY OF FASHIONABLE WINE 
DRINKING. 

The Hon. T. Marshall in an address at New York 
said — I do not know what the fashions are here ; 
at any rate, I have not drank any wine here ; but 
having been somehow in the earlier part of my life, 
as a " certain publication" within these last few days 
has stated, I don't know how, I suppose it was by 
accident: but having been in the earlier part of my 
life thrown into gooi v, I know what was the 

practice then — and I know if one wished to be con- 
sidered a polite man, he must, ex m rom 
the necessity of the case, if he wished to be cm 
dered a good fellow or a person of pi> he must 
offer this liquor to his friends, and hi mst 
drink it too, or it was considered an insult. No 
gentleman who wished to be considered such, or 
rich, or dignified, or social even, must not only have 
his cellar but his sideboard well stocked and stored 
with south side Madeira and such other liquors ; and 
if he invited his friends to dinner, he must at h sst 
furnish them with the means of getting drunk, if tl 
chose to do so. Is it reasonable this should be the 
case, or is there any necessity for it? Could it be 
predicated that the same result could be attained 
with any thing else ? Take tobacco for instance. 
A gentleman is very fond of tobacco, good old Vir- 
ginia tobacco — and very good it is too — he likes it 
notwithstanding it corrupts his breath, and dirties his 
mouth, and spoils his teeth, and destroys the neat- 
ness of the ladies' arrangements of their household, 



TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 237 

and spoils their carpets by spitting on them. Now, 
no gentleman need take this as personal or applying 
to himself, for I use this tobacco myself, and there- 
fore the strictures apply with equal force to myself. 
I use this tobacco, it enters into my system, nature 
becomes accustomed to it ; nature is very accommo- 
dating, for any nasty vile habit we make ourselves 
accustomed to she kindly allows us. I get to like it 
extremely, and think it a very good thing ; and be- 
cause I like it, and think it a good thing, I take out 
my tobacco box, and present the tobacco to a friend 
who calls to see me, saying, ' Now, my dear fellow, 
come take some tobacco. I have destroyed the 
functions of my stomach, and having triumphed 
over nature, who has been so kind and accommo- 
dating to me, / have dirtied my mouth and soiled 
and spoiled my clothes, and it is nothing but fair 
that you should do the same.' Or suppose that I 
should be unwell ; that nature should require a dose 
of medicine ; say I required a mess of rhubarb and 
aloes, or a lot of pills : therefore it would be neces- 
sary for me, in order to show my hospitality to a 
gentleman who came to see me, to pull out my box 
of pills and say, ' Come now, my good fellow, do 
take one ; I am obliged to take them, and why 
should not you ?' Can you predicate that you could 
produce this fashion with any thing else. Is it be- 
cause a man, or a set of men like any thing, there- 
fore it must become fashionable. 

There is a story told of Colonel David Crocket, 
though I think it dates back considerably older, — 
and it is this. It happened at the President's table. 



238 TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 

when a fashion was brought up which I consider a 
very good one — it was the fashion of bringing bowls 
of tepid water to the guests after dinner, to rinse 
their hands. Well, there was a Western member at 
the table, one of those who had been accustomed to 
wash his face once a day, and probably that once in 
a running stream — and who probably thought he had 
such a cleanly method of eating, that it was not ne- 
cessary for him to wash his hands after dinner ; for 
those were the times when they used to eat with 
knives and forks, and not as they do now with a 
great four-pronged fork in one hand, and the fingers 
of the other. Well, after dinner the servant, as is 
the custom, brought round the bowls of tepid water, 
and brought one to this person. Me had never been 
in the habit of using this, and had never been where 
it had been used before, and he did not wish to ap- 
pear so vulgar or ill bred as to enquire what it was 
for ; he looked at the servant, but does not like to 
ask any question ; and as he did not know what else 
to do with it, he takes the bowl from the servant, 
and after eyeing it over, c down he chucks it.' Well, 
the servant twigged his man in a moment, and 
thought he would see how far he could carry the 
joke, and he walks out and returns with another 
bowl of tepid water, which he presented to the as- 
tonished member, who looked blank enough at this; 
and after staring round, and not wishing to be con- 
sidered ungenteel, he takes the second glass, and as 
he did not know where else to put it, why he sent it 
after the other. This w T as the second bowl, and the 
servant, who thought he would see how far he could 



TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 239 

carry the joke, starts off and brings in a third bow]. 
However, by this time nature had asserted her own 
rights, and gave notice he had had as much as was 
convenient. He took the third bowl, however, but 
plucked the servant by the lappel of his coat, and 
said, c I say, my dear fellow, that man over there has 
not had any, do take it to him.' [The audience 
were thrown into convulsions of laughter by the re- 
cital of this tale, in the humorous manner in which 
Mr. Marshall is so capable of relating it, and both 
ladies and gentlemen had to employ their handker- 
chiefs to wipe away the tears that rolled down their 
cheeks from the violence of their cachinations.] But, 
my friends, warm water is not one half, nor anything 
like as bad as alcohol — in fact it is in sosae cases 
very beneficial, and is productive of restoration of 
health. 

THE TWO MODERATE DRINKERS ENCOUN- 
TERING A POST. 

Two " moderate drinkers" were passing along 
South street one night, with just sufficient liquor 
aboard to make them feel as courageous as lions. 
All at once one of them ran slap against something 
in the shape of a six-footer, when he squared off and 
aimed a blow at the great unknown with such force, 
that he lost his balance, and fell prostrate on his 
back. u Hallo, Captain! 1 ' exclaimed he to his com- 
panion, " do n't let him strike me while I'm down." 
The Captain commenced trotting round the stranger, 
and was just about to give him a whopper, when he 
discovered that the antagonist was nothing more than 
a post. 



210 TEMPERANCE ANECDOTES. 

JOHN RILEY SIGNING THE TEMPERANCE 
PLEDGE. 

Said Dr. Beman — A few days since, after he had 
entered his study and engaged in his usual duties, 
some one knocked quite rudely at the door. On open- 
ing it, an Irishman, shabbily dressed, and having the 
appearance of a confirmed drunkard, came in, lead- 
ing with him a pretty looking little girl. The man 
was asked if he wanted anything? Yes, he replied, 
I want to hear something about this Temperance. 
On questioning him, it appeared that he had heard 
the Baltimore drunkards, and his conscience was 
troubled. lie appeared to be a man of unusual 
brightness and intelligence, and really to possess the 
done for information which he expressed. I told 
him it would do him no good to sign the pledge, or 
to have any thing to do with this Temperance, unl 
he had made up his mind to it. " N ir reve- 

rence," said Pat, " but I have made up my mind ; 
And if you please, I'll not lave your study without 
signing it." Of course I was not long in prodin 
the pledge, as I always kept one at hand. He then 
requested me to give him a certificate that he had 
signed it. I did so. " Now," said he on taking 
his leave, in high spirits, and with undaunted reso- 
lution in his countenance, "if any man sees John 
Riley drunk again, then I'm no man." 



THE END. 



